http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html The traditional folksong of the Appalachians is close to my heart. I inherited an enthusiasm for such music from my father. With its Celtic origins, it has provided my connection to the Southern landscape since my arrival here twenty three years ago. The songs of this region have given me a familiar narrative and a human history that connects to my own background. These stories are old, but one only has to pick up a newspaper to see they remain fully contemporary. Lovers still fall prey to despair and suicide, or end up in the crime report. These are paintings are set very much in the present, but nothing taking place in them is new. The South wears its passion on its sleeve. It possesses what is referred to as a ‘culture of honor’, which is a gift to any artist, writer or musician. As in the Scottish Border Country, where ‘Barbara Allen’ originated many hundreds of years ago, people here take things personally. The temperament is reflected in the landscape: ‘Moreover, there was the influence of the Southern physical world- itself a sort of cosmic conspiracy against reality in favor of romance. The country is one of extravagant colors, of proliferating foliage and bloom, of flooding yellow sunlight, and, above all, perhaps, of haze. Pale blue fog hangs above the valleys in the morning, the atmosphere smokes faintly at midday, and through the long slow afternoon cloud-stacks tower from the horizon and the earth-heat quivers upwards through the iridescent air, blurring every outline and rendering every object vague and problematical…. But I must tell you the sequel to this mood is invariably the thunderstorm.’ ‘The Mind of the South’ W.J. Cash 1941 ‘Dark Corners’: The Appalachian Murder Ballad Greenville Museum of Art 2012 Morris Museum of Art 2013 Art Museum of Myrtle Beach 2014 An interview that discusses the ballad series further is available on the following online Art Magazine: Interview with Julyan Davis : Painting Perceptions All music courtesy of Greg and Lucretia Speas. http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#0 dd6e76ff-1016-4471-b5a5-cde018c6a0bc http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%207/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%207/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">What makes you sleep so sound?<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Darling Corey) Oil on canvas 48x48 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#1 ab8a3624-1ca1-4679-8e9b-d2c71865c18f http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/338790_4211805572661_18672597_o/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/338790_4211805572661_18672597_o/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"/></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#2 8abf1de7-2a8d-4b44-a018-750482da7a70 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%203/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%203/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Go and do the best you can<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Little Maggie) Oil on canvas 60x72 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#3 61553ad1-2ca1-49ce-b769-49daee88eb8c http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0165/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0165/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"/></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#4 6ec9052c-399e-45b5-a83a-ea10b1b0f356 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%209/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%209/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">‘By her lily white hand’<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Banks of the Ohio’ Oil on canvas 36x38 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#5 42e96ba0-3f74-4a4a-a46b-cf1304af82b4 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%205/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%205/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">You guessed about right<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Pretty Polly) OIl on canvas 48x72 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#6 3674112d-0460-4355-9e5f-8ab9600f87da http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/scaled_e1336056431/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/scaled_e1336056431/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">She looked east, she looked west<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Barbara Allen) Oil on canvas 36x38 2011 SOLD</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#7 3ca5036a-849e-47e3-b4b6-117236944f06 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%206/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%206/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Where the sun refuse to shine<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Dark Hollow) Oil on canvas 40x64 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#8 c59ca158-e60b-44a3-af1a-0be966a2bee7 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%208/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%208/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Would you take me unkind?<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Pretty Polly) Triptych Left panel 40x108 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#9 4a9e492b-ac52-445c-b212-3d453eb656cb http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%201/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%201/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Would you take me unkind?<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Pretty Polly) Triptych Center panel 40x108 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#10 cf9f3c09-e9f9-49c5-b8e2-8339c5bbcac4 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%202/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/Image%202/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Would you take me unkind?<br/></p><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="Caption">(Pretty Polly) Triptych Right panel 40x108 2012</p></div></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#11 70e68ff2-b51b-42df-a961-74070e6156c6 http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0238/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0238/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"/></div> http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS.html#12 08ad17ae-7e05-4ec2-a1a6-bcf07adac41f http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0182/thumb.jpg http://julyandavis.com/julyandavis/BALLADS_files/Media/DSC_0182/micro.jpg <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_540_28"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Lucretia Speas performing traditional ballads at exhibit</p></div></div>