Archive for November 12, 2009
Woodie Long 1942-2009
SANTA ROSA BEACH – Local folk artist Woodie Long died Monday night. He would have turned 67 on Oct. 19.
When Long first picked up a paintbrush in 1987, he was 45 years old and had never painted anything smaller than a house. He had no formal training.
The paintbrush belonged to his wife, Dot, a portrait painter who was out of the house taking a class at the local university. When she came home, Long had finished three paintings.
She saw something in them. So did her art professor, who offered to buy them for $30 each.
Long kept those first paintings, but had his first show three weeks later. He brought 38 paintings and sold all but two, taking home $1,800.
CLIICK HERE to see photos of Woodies’ studio.
Thirteen years later, his work was hanging in more than a dozen museums across the country and he estimated that he had sold 10,000 paintings.
His wife never painted again. Instead, she is her husband’s bookkeeper and the one who sets the prices. The works of this former housepainter have brightened the covers of more than 30 publications and even the simplest of his paintings sold for hundreds of dollars.
“People come in,” he said in a 2000 interview with the Daily News, smile lines wandering back to his hair. “They say, ‘Your works are expensive.’ I say, ‘Have you bought a van Gogh lately?’ “
Artist Curtis Weatherall remembered meeting Long three or four years ago. He found Long sitting in his studio singing and playing a piano.
“He was a character, a great guy,” Weatherall said. “And he will definitely be missed.”
Long was one of 12 children born to a Plant City, Fla., sharecropper. He could not read or write very well, since his father didn’t believe in school.
“I’m nothin’,” he said. “I’m just a housepainter. The good Lord touched my hands and made me an overnight success.
“That’s why they’re goin’ to put me in jail. For impersonating an artist. But they ain’t done it yet.”
(from NWF Daily News – http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/rosa-21535-artist-santa.html)
The passing of Jake McCord
Jake (JT) McCord passed away September 1 at the age of 64. Funeral services were held at Zion Baptist Church near Lincolnton, Georgia. A native of Lincoln County, where he picked cotton as a child, McCord moved to Thomson as a young man and worked for the city for over 40 years.
Jake will be missed by many. He was a soft-spoken gental soul, despite his tragic and abusive childhood. Jake became famous for his paintings on plywood, which he would nail to the walls of his porch. He called this his gallery and said he put them on his porch, so the town children could come by and see his art.
His paintings were usually children playing with their pets, cats, dogs and animals from the farm. He had a unique vision using bold strokes and bright enamel paint. The McDuffe Museum will reconstruct the front porch of Jake’s home and display his art as he did for years.
One of his paintings of his home church rested against his casket, during his funeral service. Henry Drake, a longtime friend of Jake, said during the service “I was always glad to see J.T coming to see me. Sleep on my friend J.T. and save a seat for me.
- Ted Oliver
