East Alabama Artist Inc.
Art Works Gallery

Worth W. Barham

My love of wood goes back to my early childhood. My grandfather on my mother’s side owned a saw mill in east Texas. I traveled with him constantly, and he talked about the indigenous woods of our area. His favorite was red gum, heart of sweet gum, and curly or edge grained pine cut from the stumps of the long leaf pine- the area where the roots join the main trunk. He provided me with the tools and the raw materials to make small items in his work shop.

My first experience with the lathe was in the Army in the early 1960’s. Special services, a little known section is located on every post, had every tool and raw materials anyone could want. An ole master sergeant taught me to turn four identical legs for my first table made of sugar maple. And using a cliché - I have been turning ever since.

My wife says that I must have been a tree in an earlier life, because I am always picking up discarded cousins along the streets and country roads from North Carolina to Texas. Rare is the trip that I don’t return home with some type of wood.

My favorite turning woods are walnut, cherry, and maple. Burls on cherry and oak trees give a distinctive beauty to a turned bowl, vase, or box.

ARTIST BIO

As a watercolor artist Jack Hadder was somewhat of a late starter. His first watercolor painting was completed after his 62nd birthday. What was to be an occasional hobby turned into " love at first sight".

He attended watercolor classes with Wayne Spradley, of Pell City, and has traveled to the Northern tip of Michigan to study with Chen Khee Chee and West to Santa Fe to study with Jan Hart.

His library of books and videos on design, composition, color, techniques etc. continues to grow. He has spent many hours of self-study and experimentation with water media, mainly watercolor.

In 2004, Jack entered his first exhibit and proudly brought home an Honorable Mention award. In his second exhibit, the 63rd National Watercolor Society of Alabama Exhibit, he also won an award.

More recently Jack has become interested in the oriental style of painting called Sumi-e. He loves the clean simplicity of the art form that captures the essence of the subject without overworking the results.

In his "spare" time, Jack (a Life Master) plays , directs, and teaches bridge. He has however, reduced the number of sessions he plays per week to devote more time to his new love, painting. He paints almost every day in his studio in his rural home overlooking a lake in Clay County, Alabama.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I began painting somewhat late in life but I feel a passion about painting. I just have to do it. While I’m completing one painting, I’m already thinking about the next one.

I usually work in my studio, with wonderful music playing on the overhead speakers. I sometimes feel that my painting are in harmony with the music. I usually begin by discovering something that for some reason attracts my attention. It may be an old gnarled tree, a weathered barn, a beautiful flower or something more abstract such as some interesting shapes.

Some of my work starts totally as an abstract. I apply paint randomly and just watch the wonderful transparencies of watercolor mix on the paper. I later begin to see a subject develop. Sometimes this process may take several weeks before the subject appears while at other times it is immediate. Once I get started, I usually get totally lost in the experience of the moment and may lose all track of time before I stop.

Becoming an artist at my age I think proves that one is never to old to learn. And the learning process continues. I learn from every painting and continue to explore various ways to express my feeling about the essence of the subject that I’m painting.

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She has studied with Charles Reid, Les Yarbrough, and Wayne Spradley among others, and she had a successful one person show at St. Vincent's hospital in  Birmingham in 2004. Her work can be seen currently at The Magnolia Tree in Auburn and at Art Works, a co-op gallery in Anniston. She is a Signature Member of the Watercolor Society of Alabama, and is an active member of the Visual Arts Society at Jacksonville State University

Lectora K. Johnson (Tora)
525 Paige Hill Road
Anniston, AL 36207

Graduate of St. Mary¹s Junior College, Raleigh, N.C.
Graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, BS in English and History.

In 1974 Tora started painting in oils with Hans Kreutzfeldt and Hans Neubert in Germany and took workshops with David Slade in the US.  She was introduced to watercolors by Wayne Spradley of Pell City and continues to study with him.  Numerous workshops have taken her in different directions painting on paper, gessoed paper and Yupo, and collaging with stained or natural oriental papers and creating designs or textures on existing paintings.

Her watercolor paintings have hung at Stringfellow Memorial Hospital, Anniston, and annually at Winter Market of the Anniston Museum of Natural History.  They have also hung in the JSU Visual Arts Members¹ Show, JSU Miniworks exhibit and in a one-man show in the  Fine Arts Building at The Donoho School.  

She has sold paintings from the Atlanta gallery, Works of His Hands.  A number of her paintings can be seen at the Anniston gallery, Art Works,  a cooperative fine arts gallery under East Alabama Artists, Inc. This is a nonprofit coop which shows and sells works of sixteen regional artists.  

Recently she had a one-man three-month exhibit at the Berman Museum of World History, Anniston, AL.  In November 2005 she had a one man show at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, AL.  She received an Honorable Mention, with cash reward, from the Watercolor Society of Alabama during their annual Fall exhibit in 2005. 

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In the most recent years, Harold became intrigued with the beautiful grain patterns that evolve from burl wood and from wood that has obvious defects such as knots and bark inclusions.  Now with many of his turnings having a natural edge and the tree bark remaining on the piece, he uses this once considered flawed wood to create unique turnings that are "sculpture-like" pieces for the home and office.

E-mail:  harold@alabamagalleries.com

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Betty Mills (Groover) is a native of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. She received both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of Alabama. Presently she is a resident of Jacksonville, Alabama where she maintains a studio and is an adjunct instructor at Jacksonville State University Art Department.

Betty has exhibited widely in both juried and invitational shows. Her work is in many private and corporate collections. Her primary medium is oil on canvas, but she has extended her interest recently to the three-dimensional, producing large cast paper and clay bowls. She describes the cast paper as three-dimensional paintings, and frankly refers to the clay as being "a painter's pots" due to the interest in color and texture in the glazes, slips, ash, stains, and oxides which she uses. She is also known for her work in marble and natural stone mosaics.

Her paintings, bowls, and mosaic tables are on exhibit at ArtWorks Gallery.

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Nan Perry

Having grown up in the rural Southeast, Nan Perry learned early to appreciate natural beauty. Her hometown of Ashland, Alabama lies at the end of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Nearby Cheaha National Park is a popular site for tourists and locals. When Nan developed an avid interest in oil painting, the lush blues and greens of her surroundings provided an unending array of subject matter. Travel in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the western U.S.  broadened her palette. Nan teaches English and art at Clay County High School. She paints for sheer pleasure. Her wish is that you too will experience pleasure as you view her work.

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Cyndy Porter

Cynthia Stahl Porter, of Gary, Indiana, has lived all over the mid-west and now resides in Jacksonville, AL where she maintains a studio in her home. She received both a BS and BFA degree from Jacksonville State University. She is a founding member of East Alabama Artists Inc., which runs the Art Works Gallery.

Cynthia has worked in many mediums including oil and watercolor painting, photography, printmaking, collage and ceramics. Her concentration is working in clay, both hand-building sculptural forms and wheel throwing functional pieces. To continue her education in the medium of clay she attends workshops. "It is always interesting to see how other clay artists work with the medium.

She has exhibited in both juried and invitational shows and her works are in many private collections. Presently her work can be found at Art Works Gallery, 921 Noble Street, Anniston, AL.

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Attended Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia as an Art Major. Attended Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany as a student of German in the Interpreters School.

Rita has studied abstract oil painting under Al Sella, professor of art at the University of Alabama. Her primary chosen medium is water color which she has studied in France, Italy, Mexico, Scotland and the United States under such outstanding artists as Gerald Brommer, Frank Webb, Charles Reid, Zoltan Szabo and Wayne Spradley. She enjoys painting scenes from her travels

Her works have been exhibited in juried and invitational shows. She has exhibited work at Brooks and Black Gallery in Atlanta, the Winter Market of the Anniston Museum of Natural History, the JSU Visual Arts Members Show, the Watercolor Society of Alabama as an award winner and at the Fine Arts Building at the Donoho School.

Rita's work is in private collections through out the southern states as well as such institutions as the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Her works can be seen at the Art Works Gallery in Anniston at 921 Noble Street.

E-mail Theresaspringer@aol.com

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Ludy Turner

Painting has been part of my life for thirty years now. Many of those years were spent painting on location, and it still is my favorite way to paint, because what I put on canvas or paper outdoors is livelier. My first medium was oil, but later I added watercolor as another avenue to achieve the effect I wanted in my painting. Ink drawings are fun to do as well.

After painting for many years in workshops and taking lessons from artists s.a. Janet Tillery, Doyle Fellows, Cynthia Parsons, Donny Finley, Tony van Hasselt and Wayne Spradley, I went back to school and took art classes at Jefferson State Junior College and U.A.B.

It is important to me to remain open to new and different ideas to improve my painting. Workshops, other artists, and trying new and different approaches help me to keep learning.

My work has won awards at various art shows, and is in homes, businesses and offices all over the country. I taught a beginning class at Alabama Art Supply, and continue to teach in my home studio periodically.

For several years my work was at the Loretta Goodwin Gallery in Birmingham. Currently my paintings can be seen in Anniston at the Art Works Gallery, or in my home studio, by appointment.