Waterfront Apartments #30, Jimmie Lee Sudduth Painting

A row of apartment buildings standing next to a waterfront. At the base of the buildings is a bridge and a boat in the water, with crowd of figures clustering just nearby. The painting is part of a larger series Jimmie Lee Sudduth made on apartment buildings. Jimmie Lee Sudduth was one of the early masters of southern self-taught art. He was born March 10, 1910 in Caines Ridge, Alabama, near Fayette, where he lived for most of his life. There he worked for years as a farm hand, although even from an early age Sudduth had an affinity for art. "I started drawin' when I was three years old, and I been drawin' ever since," he said. "I always use mud. That's right. And charcoal out of the fireplace. My mama was a medicine doctor, you know. She'd go out and get stuff outdoors, and I'd be drawing on a tree with the charcoal and mud." True to his word, Sudduth painted with whatever materials he happened to have on hand. He would use grasses, berries, and even soot for color. His favorite and