Wyatt Waters, Another Coat of Paint: An Artist's View of Jackson, Mississippi

by Wyatt Waters, Willie Morris (Foreword), James C. Patterson (Editor)

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 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.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997