Born in Plant City, Fla., Woodie Long (American, 1942-2009) was one of a dozen children born to a sharecropper. He worked the fields with his family and never attended formal school.
After working for two-and-a-half decades as a house painter, health problems forced him to leave that career. He began painting with his wife’s art supplies, quickly finding his voice and style as an artist. Long struck a chord with the public early in his second career, selling nearly all of his works at his first show. He continued to paint until shortly before his death.
Long drew from his memories in his work, creating colorful, vibrant, narrative-driven paintings filled with joy and spontaneity. His work has been widely shown. In addition to the Albany Museum of Art, his work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Columbus Museum, and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, as well as private collections, including those of actor Tommy Lee Jones and the House of Blues.
