Alice Latimer Moseley (American/Mississippi)

Lot description

Alice Latimer Moseley (American/Mississippi, 1909-2004), "Skunks in the Smokehouse", acrylic on board, signed lower right, signed, titled and inscribed en verso, 16 in. x 20 in., framed with title plaque, overall 20 in. x 24 in. x 1 1/2 in. Note: Alice Latimer Moseley started painting late in life at the age of sixty-five. When Moseley’s Alzheimer’s–afflicted mother moved in with her and her husband in the 1960s, Moseley took up painting as a way to deal with the grief, depression and stress that came with being a full–time teacher at work and caretaker at home. After her mother’s passing in the early 1970s, Moseley’s son convinced her to try and sell the large body of work she created while caring for her mother. She sold thirty paintings in one day in a Nashville flea market stall and decided that it was a sign to pursue art fulltime. The lot on offer here “Skunks in the Smokehouse” highlights one of Moseley’s strengths: finding humor in southern life. Many of her works deal with southern people in all their varied and eccentric forms engaging in their daily lives and activities. While the levity in which she painted her subjects was born from a time of devastation, Moseley would often mention that without the pain of losing her mother, she would have never become an artist and viewed it as a precious gift that her mother gave her. Ref.: “Alice”. Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum. www.alicemoseley.com. Accessed May 18, 2014.