Folksy Art Prints
....images of all kinds of folksy people in various and sundry situations in life. Please notice the people in the scenes all appear to be short in stature. I call them my little "munchkins" and I dearly love all of them. There is, however, always one in each scene that I choose to be my "favorite" character, and just before I sign each painting and dedicate it to God, I ask the little person, "Well, what do you think of this one?" To my way of thinking, the answer is always, "I love it!" I will sign prints upon request. BWms
artistbwms@aol.com
$3.00 shipping up to as many as 5 prints from any combination of selections (shipping may be a little more for the larger prints and limited editions).
Mine All My "Byself"-DonkeyA little girl I used to know staked her claim on everything she wanted,and also her intentions not to share it, with an adamant and backward, "This is mine all MY BYSELF". We could never teach her to say it correctly. It appears the little girl in this print is tired of sharing her flour-sack cloth with the doll, the donkey for his blanket, and anyone else who just happened to buy flour in sacks with the same pattern as hers. I can also remember being afraid I might "meet myself coming back" when I sashayed downtown on Saturday afternoon on the way to the "picture show". She is looking the donkey squarely in the eye as she tells him in no uncertain terms that this is "mine all by byself". BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Don't Play with Dogs That Chase Skunks
Print of a cleansing. Grandpa washing old coon hound who tangled with a skunk instead of a coon the night before(see lye soap and Hi-Pro, we would use Clorox today) and Grandma washing (see Duz washing powder) little grandson who, unfortunately played with the hound before Grandpa washed him. Two of child's sisters in midground holding their noses. Incidentally, Grandpa had to bury his hunting overalls in the ground for two days before Grandma would allow him to dig them up for her to wash them. (That really works, you know.) I will sign prints upon request. BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping
Home By the Watermelon PatchPrint of a family glad to be back home again after their weekly trip to town to stock up on groceries and feed for their animals. The old family dog is happy to see everybody. Chances are the boys took the opportunity to strut around for the young girls, the father maybe did a little bragging about his fine watermelon crop and Mama showed off her brand spanking new baby. Please note that the white leghorn hen took advantage of their absence to partake of a bit of watermelon. Everybody has enjoyed doing their thing but IT'S SO GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN... BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping
Washday, Monday, Maytag, & MamasDid you ever see so many Mamas in your life? One Mama hanging clothes on the line; one feeding chickens and their offspring; one little girl clutching her baby's arm while talking to the coon hound pup; the pups mother busy trying to drag the quilt off the line. Mamas everywhere! Is that a father on the Farmall tractor in the background? How did a father manage to get in a "Mamas Painting" anyway? BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Granny & Smutty Wash PotPrint depicting and Old Blue Monday scene of a grandma washing clothes in the old iron washpot (some call it a gypsy pot. This old smutty pot was used to "boil" clothes in, to make lye soap in, to boil peanuts in, even to make ton's of chicken perleau (don't have any idea how that was spelled with the Southern accent and pronunciation). This granny looks as if she may have done some of all of it. BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Left Behind
It became necessary that one of my Mama's older brothers be moved from his old Georgia home where he had lived alone for many years. He was no longer able to care for himself. He had not really lived alone, as he always had chickens, a couple of cats, a dog or two, and lots of visitors. He was a "stomp down" good cook and could stir up more good things to eat on the spur of the moment than most people could after planning the meal for a week. After he had been relocated in town with relatives, my Mama, sister, Dissie and I went by the old house to see if the movers had left anything of importance. Sure enough something was LEFT BEHIND. Among them was a beautiful Pink Perfection Camellia he had planted which was his favorite, a lot of warm memories that no longer lingered in his memory bank as a result of his infirmity, and a lone chicken that was pecking around in the yard. I was distraught that the poor creature was left alone to fend for itself but Mama assured me the chicken could "live off the land" forever. I'm a city girl. What do I know? Later on, I painted this scene again with the chicken (rooster) right "cadab" in the middle of the yard. But that's another story.......BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Fiddler, Buckdancer, and HoedownAll my Mama's sisters and brothers were musically inclined, one of the twin boys played the fiddle and the other the quitar. The one learning the play the quitar didn't hear a lot of complaints when he practiced but the one learning to play the fiddle had to endure a lot of "chin music" about his talent (or lack thereof, as some thought). He persevered though and became very proficient at it. Years later Mama thought to take up the fiddle (she already played quitar) and I think finally conquered one tune, "Far Over the Waves". We tried to get her to play, "Down Yonder", (literally---or Over Yonder and Out Yonder or anywhere but in the house). All she had to do was pick up the violin case and her little dog would crawl under the bed and my Daddy, my sister, and I would make ourselves scarce! She thought it was funny and thankfully, the urge to play the fiddle didn't last very long. This print will make you happy through and through.... BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Hound Dog Praying in the GardenPrint of old hound dog in prayer right along side a farmer and his wife. He's heard that those who pray together STAY together and he wants to stick closer than white on rice to the hand that feeds him. Speakn' of which, what's for supper?..... BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
What’s for Supper (Mud Pies)One of our favorite things to do as children was to make "play houses" and cook up wonderful things to eat. We could take an old empty tomato can and fill it with wild "something or others" that smelled like turnip greens when you boiled them. I can't believe my Mama let us build our little fires for cooking--even though we were right under her nose, or course. Most certainly we had to have cornbread with the turnips thus the "mud pies". The Mamas and Aunts and Mammies were usually on the porch or sitting under the old chinaberry tree shelling peas or shucking corn (or whatever) for our real supper. They always managed to stay a lot cleaner with their cooking than we did with ours for some reason. Thank goodness we kids did not have to eat what we cooked. As my grandkids would say....Yuk! BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Granny Says "The Good Book Says"Print of two grandma ladies sitting in the shade reading the Good Book. They believe that everything in it is the Gospel Truth!! Even the dog believes it! BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.Some Fish'n and Some Wish'nPrint of a young boy and his dog doing a little fish'n while a group of fruit pickers on the other side of the pond is doing a little wish'n....to be sitting on a dock wetting a hook instead of filling crates with oranges. What's that saying..."Wish in one hand and....." I forget the rest... BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Snuck Off for a Kiss
Print depicting a young country couple enjoying their first (perhaps) kiss. Note the old dog seems to be most uninterested in the "love affair" but would like to get on with the walk in the luscious green woods. The colors in this spring painting are wonderful and I should know-I put them there. BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
The Hog Killing
Butchering day on the farm was done once a year on a day that was colder than a well digger's butt. Any man who ever dug a well can attest to that being cold indeed. Usually two families united to tackle this tremendous job. When a collector of Queena Stovall's Folk Art approached me about doing a Hog Killing painting for him since it was a subject of hers he found interesting, I had to borrow from the memory banks of my Mama and sister before laying a brush to canvas. While Mama gave me the nitty gritty about scalding, scraping, getting sides of meat and hams ready for the smokehouse, fat rendered for cracklin's and lard, sausages stuffed into chitterlings, etc., my sister "blessed" me with a memory I would have preferred blotted from the register. She related my uncle took the pig bladder, scalded and cleaned it, stuck a reed into the bladder stem, blew it up and made us a "balloon". Had it not been my sister telling me this, I would not have believed it. Drat! No wonder I blotted it from my memory bank. Later, when I was in Junior High school, our principal gave a demonstration at our Football Grandstand on how to butcher a pig, telling in detail all the body parts, etc. He even blew air through the esophagus.....(goozle pipe is what we called it on the farm). Had I not already been feeling "green around the gills" by then, I could have shown him how to make a very "unique" balloon. As I recall, I left the demonstration with a firm resolve not to eat at the cafeteria that day if the fare was hot dogs, barbecued ribs, ham, sausage......you get my drift? BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
Shuck'n and Shell'n In The Shade
No fancy grocery stores for these Grandmas. First, they had to go the garden and pick the peas, gather the "roshin ears" (roasting ears to the more sophisticated) and select the best of the ripe tomatoes and cucumbers. After working up a sweat---ladies aren't supposed to sweat, but glow--however just try "glowing" after picking a couple of rows of peas and ripping off a dozen or so ears of corn from the stalks. Glow, my foot! --this dynamic trio has found a good cool shady spot under the Chinaberry trees. It appears that before the shuck'n and shell'n, there is a story that needs tell'n. Two of the Grannys are enthralled by what the other one is saying. What could possibly be precipitating all that unholy mirth? (One of the Circuit judges in the Courthouse where I worked for years always asked that question when he saw two or three people talking and laughing together.) One thing for sure, these ladies are going to have a lip- smack'n good dinner, which by the way, is eaten in the middle of the day--not at night. We ate "supper" at night. I'd guess the menu is going to be black-eyes peas with okra cooked on top, corn cut off the cob, and cooked in the oven and stirred a dozen or so times until it is as creamy as can be, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, cornbread and/or biscuits (my Mama cooked both), fried chicken or pork chops and iced tea. For dessert, there will be Blackberry or Huckleberry Doobie. Doobie is berries sweetened and boiled until tender with very thin dumplings laid in the hot blue/black bubbly juice for a few minutes then served with fresh thick cream. Obviously whatever the story is, the little dog is enjoying it too. How well I remember the Shuck'n, Shell'n, Tell''n ....and Mirth--and I know for a fact it wasn't "unholy."
...Bettye Williams
Open Ended Print. Unframed 10 x 13 each priced 11.99 plus shipping.
The GolferDad, being tired out from playing golf all day yesterday has overslept....Won't he be surprised to find that his little miniature golfer son has accomplished his very own hole in one? ....A fun thing for all you golfers out there....BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
The TwinsThese twins have double-bogied for sure--his doing his thing with Dad's golfing hat and her writing on the wall is sure to get these two little ones in a '"peck of trouble". From the expression on their faces, they know it too!!! BWms
Open Ended Print. Unframed 8 x 10 each 9.99 plus shipping.
