i've been coming across some amazing artists as of late since we started publishing the studio spaces series. each artist participating was asked to list three of their favorite artists and i've been having so much fun reading them all. i subsequently received an email from a reader all the way from cape town, south africa (leanne) who had to tell me how blown away she was by a specific artist, harry underwood out of nashville. harry's work was mentioned by dolan geiman in his studio interview recently and when i went to investigate leanne's claims, i was also impressed by his work and had to find out more.

his work has the essence of margaret kilgallen's folk illustrations, something retro with some really fine hand-lettering here and there. almost vintage tourist ads with storytelling going on. he says "my work has become like advertising for my own desire to relax, and take it easy. vacation. but there isn't anywhere i really want to go, so i invent one... i call it "ardmore". the dream of beaches and palms seem to be universal nowadays. "

when we contacted him, he mentioned he was heading for to l.a. soon (following a mermaid there) to check out the art scene and to look for a gallery (anyone?) for those of you arriving or departing nashville international airport, you'll be lucky enough to see his paintings at american airlines gate section c this summer (june - august). these are some of his early paintings entitled, "ligeia". that show leads up to a solo exhibit at estel gallery in nashville and the intuit show of folk and outsider art, chicago, il.

artbyharry.com