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Woods Scene

Oil on canvas
18 x 30 inches

As published in:
Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection

As exhibited in:
The Governor's Mansion, Frankfort, Kentucky, 2010–2014

Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, 2015–2018, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia; McKissick Museum of Art at the University of South Carolina, Columbia; Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Kentucky artist Harvey Joiner created an extraordinary body of work based upon a simple compositional format, which he repeated, with only slight variation, in hundreds of paintings. Joiner placed rows of towering beech trees—leaning towards each other across a narrow gap in the forest—in a consistent pattern, diminishing the size of the tree from foreground to background as a means of enhancing the illusion of space and depth.

During his lifetime, this formulaic practice earned Joiner steady financial reward and local popularity. His work, usually framed in ornate gold surrounds and embedded in a fly-resistant glass shadow box, was often given as a wedding present.