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USA
South
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Fayette, AL
Jimmy Lee Sudduth
1910-2007
Sweet mud artist, direct observation
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Information:
Born in Caines Ridge, Alabama, Jimmy Lee Sudduth has achieved recognition for his colorful paintings made with mud, sugar and natural pigments. He had little formal education, and his teachers said he would like to draw then learn his subjects. Before he started to paint full time, he worked in the nearby farms and at a gristmill.
His paintings are made of mud, which he claims he has been doing since he was three years old. In the late 1960s he started appearing at county fairs with his harmonica and his mud paintings, and that is when others began to learn of his work.
Sudduth uses plywood and outlines the image with what he calls a "dye rock." They are soft stones that he claims that Indians used to paint their faces with. After they are dipped in water they leave a heavy line on the surface. He mixes mud and sugar water, and applies this to his painting. The sugar binds the mud to the surface of the board. He then gathers weeds and vegetable matter and rubs them on the paintings surface to apply more color.
In addition to being known for his painting, Sudduth has quite a reputation for his blues renditions on the harmonica. In 1976, he performed at the Smithsonian Institution's Bicentennial Festival of Folklife.
Orange Hill Gallery
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Bibliography:
"Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig" by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.
"Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations" (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.
On DVD - Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, "Southern Flavor", KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1999-2001.
"Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists" by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, New York, 1990.
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Let it Shine: Self-Taught Art from the T. Marshall Hahn Collection" by Lynne E. Spriggs, Joanne Cubbs, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Susan Mitchell Crawley, Michael E. Shapiro and Peter Harholdt, organized by the High Museum of Art, 2001.
"Light of the Spirit : Portraits of Southern Outsider Artists" by Karekin Goekjian and Robert Peacock, University of Mississippi Press, 1998.
"Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources" by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.
"Contemporary American Folk Art - A Collector's Guide" Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, 1996.
"Flying Free: Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon" by Ellin Gordon, Barbara L. Luck and Tom Patterson, exhibit catalog for The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, 1997.
"Souls Grown Deep: African American vernacular Art of the South", Vol 1, Arnett, et al, 1995.
"Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: the Ronald and June Shelp Collection", Cronwill, Danto, Gaither, Gundaker and McWillie, 2001.
"Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" by Tom Patterson, Watson-Guptill Publications/New York, 2001.
"American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies" by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
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