Lucy Hunnicutt

In her own words: "In the final year of the 1980's I had an epiphany. I ended a marriage, quit my job, and headed east out of Austin, Texas to tiny St. Marks, Florida where I moved into a two-room cabin older than the century. My new home sat on a sparsely traveled sand road surrounded on three sides by thick woods and smack between two churches. Neither church was close enough to see, but on Sundays I could listen to dueling gospel choirs sometimes until late in the day. The other days of the week I worked growing chemical-free herbs in my gardens and greenhouse.

Winter nights were spent stoking the wood stove, during one of those nights I began to paint. I painted the long views across the salt marsh, the pattern of the light through the cabbage palm, the shadows and colors of the dead leaves on the ground. I painted the fish my neighbors shared with me, just pulled from the river, and the chickens in their yards.

Some of the people in these paintings were neighbors and friends. Some are musicians who's music I have loved. The stories are memories or parts of conversations I have had or heard. Others are lyrics to songs.

I use found material and most of the tin is from nearby barns or beach cottages found after storms. A lot of the wood is from the same houses.

I call these paintings "Blues Paintings" because the Blues are life and that is where these come from, some happy times, some sad, some spiritual and mysterious. These paintings come straight out of my heart and when I work on them I feel nothing but joy. I hope some of that feeling can find its way to you."