Hunter-esque painter finds her niche

When Mary Walker was a young girl, she dreamed of being an artist and going to Paris.

But she would have to wait until her mid-50s and a chance meeting with a local artist and teacher before she ever put brush to canvas.

“God just let me know it wasn’t too late,” said Walker, 56. “I asked God to put someone in my path that was an artist and that day he did. To me, it’s very personal and special because God did it.”

She has not made it to Paris yet, but Walker’s oil paintings depicting black Southern culture and spiritual inspirations are earning her attention and a second career.

Locals can view some of Walker’s latest works at the Bayou Lafourche Heritage Day festival on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Edward Douglass White Historic Site, 2295 La. Hwy 1 in Thibodaux.

Walker was at a Thibodaux garage sale in 2004 when she met artist Joan Thibodaux. Walker asked Thibodaux if she would teach her how to paint. To Walker’s delight, Thbodaux agreed.

“I only intended to work with her a couple of hours,” Thibodaux said. “Mary and I got so involved and she was so enthusiastic, she finished her little painting that afternoon and she kept right on painting.”

The next time the two women saw each other a few months later, Walker’s apartment was crowded with new works. Thibodaux was amazed by how fast Walker had progressed.

“Her style, her use of colors, her values, her details, she has all the wonderful elements,” Thibodaux said. “She’s a much better artist than I could ever be because she has a freedom of spirit that shows through in her paintings.”

That freedom comes from a personal connection with God and the stories Walker heard as a child from her grandmother, Alice Washington Johnson.

Growing up in Napoleonville, Walker was entranced by Johnson’s tales of working the fields and generally how life was back then.

“Stories about cotton fields, cotton picking, cane fields, spiritual things like the baptisms, that’s the stuff I’m starting to do,” Walker said.

Johnson, who raised Walker and an older sister, Carolyn (they are two of eight children) since each was two-months-old, gave the aspiring artist a drawing pad. She would fill that pad with sketches and her dreams of becoming a working artist.

The dream came to a halt when Johnson died on Walker’s 16th birthday. Walker left Napoleonville to join Carolyn in Thibodaux.

“I didn’t finish school and I didn’t have the push,” she said. “I didn’t have anybody to back me up.”

Walker spent most of her life in Thibodaux working vocational jobs. She was a certified welder for nine-and-a-half years and worked at Cintas Uniform People for seven years. She also spent about a week cutting sugarcane and currently doubles as a babysitter when she’s not painting.

Walker overcame some personal struggles during her 20s and 30s, and in 1997 she rediscovered her connection with God at the First United Pentecostal Church House of Prayer.

“He is the reason I am where I am now. He opened the door,” she said. “He’s number one in my life. I don’t miss church.”

Since that first art lesson, Walker has refined her style. While Thibodaux advises her on the technical aspects, Walker has learned mostly through trial and error.

Her paintings are very soft, almost translucent. Instead of using traditional blues and greens for landscapes, she prefers pastel shades. Despite their primitive look, the figures in her works illustrate motion, express joyous emotions and a contentment with life.

Walker has entered her works in a few art contests, including the 2006 Juneteenth Freedom Festival, where she placed second to Thibodaux.

“Two judges gave her perfect scores,” Thibodaux said. “If it weren’t for the third judge cutting her down, she would have won. And that’s the first time she had done a contest.”

Walker never seems to run out of ideas for her paintings. When parishioners at her church speak of a vision they had, she paints her interpretation of their vision.

Walker hopes her newfound recognition takes her on a similar path as famous Louisiana folk artist Clementine Hunter.

“She inspired me too because she didn’t know how to paint either until she was 51, ” Walker said. “That was encouraging for me too because if it’s something that you desire, it’s never too late.”

Several of Walker’s paintings have sold for hundreds of dollars. She wants her work to gain wider acknowledgment and to make a career of being an artist.

She wishes she could paint more often, but holding a full-time job makes it difficult to find extra time in the day for her passion.

“I want to get to the point where I can just wake up in the morning and painting is the thing on my mind,” she said.

For this mother and grandmother (she has a daughter DeShaun and granddaughter LaQuan), there are no more limits. She plans to expand her subject matter as she becomes better skilled as an artist.

One stroke at a time, one dab at a time, Walker paints the past with the same clarity as she sees her future.

“Some artists just paint about one specific thing and some do a variety. But I’m just starting. It’s not like I’ve been painting 10 or 20 years. As I grow, I would like to try other things.”

Mary Walker works on a painting of a scene reminiscent of her grandmother’s childhood. Walker will be among the artists to show her work at the Bayou Lafourche Heritage Day festival on Sept. 27 at the Edward Douglass White Historic Site on Louisiana Highway 1 in Thibodaux.