Using watercolors to reproduce the sun-baked hues of the South, artist Wyatt Waters has spent the past 15 years painting the houses, business establishments, and other scenes of Mississippi's capital city, Jackson. In this splendid book—readers will find those scenes reproduced in vibrant color and black and white.
Waters uses loose colors and textures to depict the unique southern architecture. His paintings show that the city has lost both physically and spiritually through natural disaster and through willful destruction. They also show the many colorful places that still exist. His paintings show the humor and history that make a city's past landmarks its oddities and its present odditites its icons.
Like Edward Hopper's painting,s and Eugene Atget's photographs, Waters' images capture a place sparce of inhabitants yet rich in people: an umbrelled man "Working Late," a shadowy sweeper in "The Mayflower," and a woman waiting outside a shop in "Saving Souls."
Along with Jackson born writer Willie Morris who wrote the foreword, and Judy Tucker who researched and wrote the captions, Wyatt Waters has given the city a record of how it lives, works, and looks. He has given Jackson Another Coat of Paint.
Wyatt Waters was born in Brookhaven in 1955, but spent most of his childhood in Florence, Mississippi, where he first studied art. Waters moved to Clinton in 1970, finished high school and majored in Painting and Drawing at Mississippi College receiving an MA in 1982.
Waters began painting and exhibiting scenes of Jackson using the plein air style of watercolor in 1980. His early exhibits include Deposit Guaranty Plaza in 1980, the Mississippi Museum of Art in 1982, and the Meridian Museum of Art in 1983.
Waters' work has been published in several national magazines such as American Artist and Watercolor. His paintings are also in the South's largest collections, including Texaco, Standard Oil, Deposit Guaranty, Dean Witter Reynolds, and Peavy Electronics.
In addition to his painting, Waters has influenced a generation of young artist through his classes at Mississippi College and Millsaps. He has also worked as Artist in Residence in the Clinton and Meridian Public Schools.
Wyatt Waters still lives in Clinton with his wife Vicki and their daughter Crimson.
