'All Things Southern' Feature: "Pigskin"

"Pigskin"

10" x 8"  Oil on Board

 

There may be a Southern states peach rivalry and a Southern states barbecue rivalry....

but NOTHING compares to the Football Rivalry.

I capitalize it because it deserves it.

I know it's intense across the Southeast, but I've only lived in Alabama.  I can only truly speak for Alabama, but I think it's pretty well understood that there is no other rivalry quite like

Alabama and Auburn football.

It goes on all year, of course, but this weekend is BIG!  This little pigskin becomes all important this Saturday and it won't stop for quite a while.  Oh, who am I kidding?  It never stops!!

However, I'll stop now because I'll just get in trouble if I keep typing. 

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click this link to go to my website:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1252417/pigskin

....and thanks, as always, for looking and reading!

 

 

 

 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Just Peachy"

"Just Peachy"

16"x12"

Oil on Panel

 

What do peaches & barbecue have in common?  Rivalry!  (Oh, yeah, and they're both delicious!)

Just say your state has the best and watch it fly!

 

So, we all know Georgia is the Peach State and in Atlanta on New Year's Eve "The Peach Drop" rings in the new year.  Did you know South Carolina - according to an article I read - is nudging Georgia out in peach production?  Here in Alabama our claim to "peach fame" resides in Chilton County.  Stop by Durbin Farms or Peach Park on your way up or down I-65 and grab a basket...or a peach milkshake!

 

We just love them down here....peach cobbler, peach ice cream or sliced and tossed in a salad.  Then there's the peach festival where Miss Peach is crowned, and Miss Junior Peach, and Little Miss Peach, and Real Little Miss Peach....and... 

 

I find them really hard to paint because the skin is sort of mottled and ranges from yellow-green, to bright yellow, to orange, to reddish-pink, to purply (Purply is too a word!)  Then you also have the 'peach fuzz' issue which gives a lavender gray highlight to some areas.  If you put too much highlight they can look glossy like an apple and then, boom, you've lost your peach.  It's been a subject for many artists including some of my favorites Pierre Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Van Gogh.  Sure would have been nice to run into one of these guys at Peach Park so I could ask them how they handled it! :)

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click here for information:
http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1247065/just-peachy
Thanks for looking!

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Marsh Twilight"

"MarshTwilight"

11"x14"

Oil on Board

 

The marshes of Georgia and South Carolina have to be one of my favorite things about the South.  The winding waterways make lovely compositions for paintings and the light on the changing grasses is breathtaking! 

 

I graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery.  The school was named for Sidney Lanier, the poet who wrote "The Marshes of Glynn" about the marshes of Glynn County, Georgia.  An excerpt of his beautiful poem follows:

 

And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea

Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood-tide must be:

Look how the grace of the sea doth go

About and about through the intricate channels that flow

        Here and there,

                        Everywhere,

Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying lanes,

And the marsh is meshed with a million veins,

That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow

  In the rose-and-silver evening glow.

                        Farewell, my lord Sun!

The creeks overflow: a thousand rivulets run

'Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir;

Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr;

Passeth, and all is still; and the currents cease to run;

And the sea and the marsh are one. .......

And I would I could know what swimmeth below when the tide comes in

On the length and the breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn.

So, can you see why I'm proud to be a "Sidney Lanier Poet" and a Southern girl? 

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click here on a link that will take you to my website:  http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1235296/twilight-marsh

 



 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Feels Like Home"

"Feels Like Home" 

20" x 30"

Oil on Canvas

 

The past week has been an incredible week of reunions...some planned, some not.  The arrival of a sorority sister from France was the catalyst for an impromptu luncheon reuniting a group of Alpha Gamma Delta sisters last Monday.  On Saturday, my sister and all of her kids and grandchildren were in town for the first time in years for a visit and it was a gathering of every single one of us except for one nephew and my father who is in a nursing home.  Tomorrow a second cousin is coming through town and I hope to see him, too!  Unprecedented! 

 

So that brings me to this piece which I've been painting on for the past few days (maybe I'm through with it; maybe not!).  I was thinking about all of them as I painted.  I wanted to capture the familiar moss and red clay roads of the South, but as I painted I began to think of their trip here.  My niece posted on Facebook as they drove home, "Sweet Home Alabama....the air even smells lovely!" 

 

So this one's for you, my dear family and friends, who live farther away than we would like. 

I hope you can look at it and it will take you down that red dirt road, past moss-laden trees,

toward the sun, toward home. 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Light on the Lane"

"Light on the Lane"

8"x8"

Oil on Board

 

I've been working furiously on a project for the past couple of weeks.  (I can't wait till it's time to 'reveal' the paintings!)  Couple that work with the constant rain we've had and I haven't been able to get outside and paint like I want to.  I mean, it's rained every single day since about July 3...sometimes showers, sometimes torrential downpours and yesterday outright destruction. 

Trees down, power lines down, houses struck by lightning....what's a plein air artist to do? 

 Batten the hatches and paint inside! 

 

This one features a familiar spring scene in the South which is sort of a carry-over from last week's post.  Our tall pine trees make the perfect, filtered-light/shade for our beautiful azaleas to flourish.  Azaleas are seen everywhere in the spring from about late March to the middle of April...from the manicured landscapes that golf lovers see during The Masters in Augusta, Georgia, to gorgeous Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia, to the Azalea Trail in Mobile, Alabama. 

That's just to name a few! 

 

It was pouring rain when I started typing this....the sun is out now,

but odds are it'll be raining again in just a little while.  Yes, humidity, is a part of the South that I may never be able to capture on canvas unless, of course, I paint the way my hair looks! 

It's like living in a jungle lately, so for now I'll just paint inside and enjoy my "Light on the Lane"!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please visit my website:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1224723/light-on-the-lane

Thanks for looking!

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Lake & Pines"

"Lake & Pines"

14"x11"

 

 

Most Southerners are outdoors sort of people, I think.  Fishermen, hunters, gardeners....and don't forget those plein air painters.  There are quite a few of us out there, too! 

 

The lakes really are a part of our outdoors lifestyle....partly because it's so hot and partly because it's so mild the rest of the year that we can just stay outside most of the time!  Well, pines are a big part of the landscape, too.  The tall, stately longleaf pine is the state tree for Alabama and North Carolina and provides the perfect amount of shade for our azalea and hydrangea bushes to flourish.  We decorate with pine cones from autumn through Christmas and mulch our gardens with pine straw. 

As an artist, I'm most thankful probably for the turpentine!

 

...and I only realized when doing this post, the words 'lake' and 'pine' are

in most every street name in the vicinity of my house....a great duo!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please visit my website at this link:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1218828/lake-and-pines

Thanks for looking! 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Castle Foundations"

"Castle Foundations"

20" x 24"

Oil on Canvas

 

Shhhh!  Don't tell anyone!  You don't have to go out of the country to find most beautiful beaches in the world.  I just don't want it to get too crowded, so don't tell anyone!  It's been called "The Emerald Coast" because of it's amazing blue-green-turquoise-aqua clear waters; "The Miracle Strip" because, well, can the sand be any whiter?  Also, called "The Redneck Riviera" because it's our little paradise in the Deep South.  From the coast of Alabama through the panhandle of Florida, this area on the Gulf of Mexico is the gathering place for people across our region and a bunch of snowbirds, too! 

 

It's where memories are made....with your family when you're building sandcastles and playing with boogie boards, with your buddies in high school and college.  Then the circle comes back around and you're introducing the little ones in your family to that strip of shoreline that is

a tonic to the work-weary soul.....it doesn't get much better!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please visit my website at this link:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1193740

Thanks for looking!

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Barefoot Beauty"

Private Collection

30"x24"

 

One thing about the South (or just Montgomery....see 2nd paragraph!) that always seems to be a mystery to those outside the South/Montgomery (and maybe a mystery to some of us, too) is why the children are always barefoot.  Unless it is really cold...and I mean, REALLY cold.....kids are usually shoeless.  In their Sunday best.....shoeless.   In weddings.....shoeless.  I LOVE IT! 

Heirloom sewing (another Southern tradition altogether) and sweet feet complement each other beautifully and make a great portrait!

 

Maybe the heat's the reason.  I mean, it's just too hot to be comfortable in shoes most of the time! But....my mother tells about our pediatrician who years ago always recommended that children go without shoes for their good health.  Maybe then all the mothers, upon seeing how adorable the kids are without shoes, just left them in the closet until absolutely necessary.  After searching the internet, it appears this may just be a Montgomery, Alabama thing! 

I'd love to hear your town's story if you have one! 

 

My latest portrait....my sweet little neighbors!  My studio is near an entrance to their house and I paint by the window, so these sweethearts got to see their portrait being painted.  I love hearing, "Hey, Mrs. Barbara!" at the window and see them waving and on tiptoes (little bare tiptoes!) to see what I'm painting! 

 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "A Couple of Tomatoes"

"A Couple of Tomatoes"

12"x16"

Oil on Panel

 

Country living in the city!  Thank the Lord for the curb market!

  The nearby farmers make sure there's plenty to choose from all year long, but in the summer - oh, in the summer! - we have tomatoes, squash, peas, okra, corn, watermelon, peaches....need I go on?  All the fixin's for the best meal imaginable! 

We load up on Saturday morning and enjoy it all on Sunday afternoon!

 

In the fall, you'll find the best pumpkins and pecans here!

At Christmastime, the whole place is filled with the smell of evergreens and kindling.  Oh, and don't forget to pick some homemade divinity or a red velvet cake!

Strawberries and daffodils are my spring favorites!

 

I went there with my grandmother and grandfather when I was just a little girl

and it hasn't changed much in all this time. 

Again, it's that connection to the land.  It is handed to us even in the middle of downtown.

 

As far as art goes, our Montgomery Curb Market is one of my favorite subjects to paint.  The textures and colors and the figures all are so interesting to me.  There's a challenge with the light spilling into the building from all sides, but a challenge I enjoy!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please visit my website at this link: http://barbaradavis.fineartstudioonline.com/works/1204030/couple-of-tomatoes

 

'All Things Southern' Feature: "Gift from the Garden"

"Gift from the Garden"

18"x18"

Oil on Canvas

 

One of the things I cherish most about the South is the connection to the land.  We may not all be farmers now, but we're probably not too many generations removed, and more than likely grow something, somewhere!  It may even be something that originated in an ancestor's yard, like the roses my father started from his grandmother's garden.  Gardens abound and sharing the bounty is also a big part of the lifestyle in the South.  It may be a cutting or some seeds, but usually comes in the form of an armful of flowers or tomatoes!

 

I remember being with my grandmother in her garden, carefully choosing what flowers we'd take to the appointment with the hairdresser.  We tenderly wrapped the stems of  daylilies and hydrangeas in wet paper towels and aluminum foil to take as a gift.  Camellia blooms, paperwhites and daffodils were the springtime gift my other grandmother brought when she visited us.  Patients bring their doctors roses and customers bring tomatoes to the bank. 

 

This probably isn't confined to the South,

but I can attest that this is part of the spirit that resides here....

a place where you know your neighbors and you want to share beauty and abundance with them!

So glad it's my home!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click on this link to take you to my website:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1198996/gift-from-the-garden

'All Things Southern' Feature: "House Wine of the South"

"House Wine of the South"

Oil on Board

8"x6"

 

Yep.  Dolly Parton said so herself in "Steel Magnolias"...sweet tea is the house wine of the South.  That, my friends, is no understatement. 

 

Just take us to some place up North and tell us, "We don't serve sweet tea."  We cry.  Then help us by saying, "....but we have sugar!"  We cry harder.  The sugar has to be added when the tea is warm or it's just not the mother's milk we know it to be.

 

Whether it's Luzianne Tea from Monroe, Louisiana, or  Red Diamond Tea from Birmingham, Alabama, it's our refresher in hot or cold weather....the amber tonic that is probably best on Mama's table with fried chicken and cornbread!

 

I love this quote I found from Boo Weekley:

 

"It's rough. It's been rough on that food. It's different eating here than it is at the house.

Ain't got no sweet tea, and ain't got no fried chicken."—Boo Weekley, PGA golfer from Milton, Fla., interviewed by the BBC on Day 2 of the British Open, 7/20/2007

 

Ain't it so, Boo, ain't it so!?

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, please click on this link to my website!  Thank you!
http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1193486/house-wine-of-the-south

 

 

 



'All Things Southern' Feature: "Watermelon, Watermelon"

"Watermelon, Watermelon"

10x10

Oil on Canvas

 

I am passionate about life in the South.  Born and raised and deeply rooted in Alabama, I have more than a particular fondness for the myriad of things that make us who we are....and this is what I am passionate about painting.  I want to honor the Southern lifestyle....create something special for those of us who have lived here all our lives; to introduce those who aren't from around here to the things we treasure and hopefully they, too, will fall in love with this place in the world. 

 

I plan to post a painting each week featuring something uniquely special to Southerners called "All Things Southern".  It may be our landscape.  It may be a still life of cornbread and sweet tea.  It might be a neighbor or a bunch of flowers in a Mason jar.  Whatever it is, I hope it will give you a glimpse of my world and my heart...the Deep South.

 

With summer on my mind, today's posting is "Watermelon, Watermelon"...the best summer treat in Dixie! 

 

You can purchase this painting through my website www.BarbaraDavisArt.com:

http://barbaradavisart.com/works/1188520/watermelon-watermelon