Shoes

About the Item: In addition to having his work in museums and fine corporate collections, Alabama artist Donny Finley showed for years at prestigious Bryant Galleries on Royal Street in New Orleans (with locations also in Jackson, Mississippi, and Nashville I believe.) He painted scenes from all over, and I can't identify the locale of this one. It's a colorful, picturesque scene that is almost surely based on something real: a group of women searching a pile of donated or rejected shoes to see if they can find a pair that fits. Despite their apparent poverty, the women have a nobility about them. Judging from the artist's work, which typically doesn't include social statements, I think this is less a statement about poverty than simply an opportunity to capture a vivid, evocative local scene, though naturally there is a certain poignancy about it. It's beautifully painted in oil on panel. Expensively framed with a burl bevel. Framed 19" x 15", image size 12" x 8.5". Here is a bio from the artist's website: "Donny Finley grew up in the small town of Millerville, Alabama. He became known for painting the life he knew in rural Clay County. In the forty years he has been painting, Finley has relished trying new experiences and conveying these experiences through his paintings. He has spent time in the coal mining towns of West Virginia, swamps of Louisiana, the lush countryside of Ireland, cosmopolitan New York City, romantic Paris, along the rocky coastline of New England, old world Venice, and other parts of Italy. One summer he traveled up and down the Mississippi River and most recently spent time in Maine. It is not just the places he has been but the people that have been a part of his life that have fascinated him. His relationship with his grandmother is well documented in his paintings and the book, Moments Captured. Donny first became known for his watercolors; however, years of trial and error have made him proficient in the mediums of oil, egg tempera, and acrylic. Now though the scope of material he uses for subject matter has broadened with his travels, and though his painting techniques are continually evolving, one can still sense the relationship between subject matter and artist in his paintings. Donny now resides in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife Janet. His daughter Sarah paints and also teaches art in Mobile. His daughters Catie and Leah are now married and live in Birmingham. Awards: Included in the more than seventy awards Finley has won are the Larry Quackenbush Memorial Award from the American Watercolor Society in New York, the Walter Biggs Memorial Award from the National Academy of Design in New York, the Strathmore Award from the National Watercolor Society in California, and the Charlotte Livingston Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York. Exhibitions: Finley's paintings have been included in national juried exhibitions such as the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, the National Academy of Design, the Mainstreams International Exhibition, the Rocky Mountain National Watercolor Exhibition, Watercolor USA, the National Academy of Arts for the Parks, and others. His painting The Path of Eagles was exhibited at the Charlie Russell Museum in Montana in 2016. One-Man and Three-Person Exhibitions: The Columbus Club in New York City, the Oklahoma Fine Arts Center, the Cheekwood Museum of Fine Arts in Nashville, the Meridian Museum of Fine Arts in Mississippi, the Greater Birmingham Arts Alliance in Alabama, and others. From 1979 to 1989 Finley had annual one-man shows with Bryant Galleries in New Orleans, Louisiana. He later showed at Studio 53 in New York and Trees Place in Cape Cod. Finley is now represented by Debruyne Fine Art in Naples Florida. Museums and Corporate Collections: The Birmingham Museum of Art Fine Arts Museum of the South in Mobile Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences in Columbus, Georgia Coca Cola Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta Southern Natural Corporation in Birmingham Energen Corporation in Birmingham The McKenna Museum of African American Art, New Orleans Alfa Insurance Headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama The Renfro Building, Birmingham, AL The Comer Museum, Sylacauga, AL Mary Baldwin Alumnae House and others"