Village Artists Show Their Work in Thriving and Colorful Downtown Wetumpka

By Gerri Miller

EAN Staff Writer

Strolling down Wetumpka’s downtown business district Thursday felt like a visit to Montmartre, the lively hilltop village of Paris where street artists gather to paint and sell their wares.  Wetumpka’s Village Artists were busy showing their paintings and creating new masterpieces in the thriving downtown area.

The Village Artists organization is a group of 13 artists who show their work and paint outside every first Thursday of the month. This is the group’s third show.  Don Sawyer, the group’s president, said the idea is to bring more art outside to Wetumpka and bring more movement to the downtown area.

“Wetumpka is really booming, and we want to be a part of that,” Sawyer said. “We have some really great artists in the group.”

Sawyer is a self-taught artist whose “Hollywood Fish” and other paintings have become well-known and sought after throughout the world.  Sawyer is a full-time artist; a colorist who expresses himself more in color than in form. He does not mix paint but uses pure color.

He uses a stiff brush and a heavy body acrylic paint, usually on a board of wood because of its texture and durability. He takes everyday subjects and creates his own version of that subject

Robert “Preacherman” Mullins is a former student of Sawyer’s. “He started teaching me his style and I created my own style,” he said. Mullins, who is also the pastor at Crossroads Community Church, said he has a degree in graphic design that he used to work as a youth minister for 22 years.

Mullins builds canvasses from reclaimed wood and draws familiar objects such as Wetumpka’s Bibb Graves Bridge and Samford Hall at Auburn.

“I like to see people get excited about what I’ve painted,” Mullins said.  “It’s great to get out in the community, meet people and enjoy sharing art with them.”

Nancy Cooper is another artist who displayed her work at the show. She said she was a school teacher for 34 years and has painted for “a long time.”  She shared the street with Larry Stewart, who said he has a gallery in Union Springs and has taught art for many years.

Stewart is a self-taught artist and a Union Springs attorney who said he still practices law.  His paintings of bridges, sunsets and water views are realistic and beautiful.  His work also depicts the Old South, its buildings, its people, and their way of life.

Finch Allen said he was an art major at the University of Alabama in 1975 who ended up joining the Navy as a nurse. He said he drew off and on during his Navy career and retired to live at Lake Martin in 1995.  His work in graphite and watercolor can be found at the Red Hill Gallery and at future

“My family was very supportive of what I wanted to do,” Allen said. “I worked in the Baptist system for many years.” He said he fell and broke his shoulder, and it was then that he started to paint again.

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