If you are ever in Chicago, you must visit Hana Pietri Gallery and the magical world of self-taught artist Maurice Sullins. After discovering his work at the Outsider Art Fair, I couldn’t get enough and couldn’t wait to see his work again. Thanks to Tiphanie Spencer for sharing her incredible knowledge and being so generous and passionate about the work of Le Grand LeSueur!
Works in order of date completed. (242 = 242nd work completed, 957 = 957th work completed, etc.) — notice the evolution in technique, texture, and use of color over the years:
x 242 Very Blue Sky Over Paris
x 246 Madame Etienne de Silhouette Strolls Under a Chanel #5 Sky Cloud Bow
x 374 A Springtime View of Paris at Night
x 469 Dark Sky Over Small Village Haystacks
x 494 Small French Village in Eastern Uplands
x 496 King Louis XII of France
x 668 Fields of Flowers Around Grasse
x 957 Gauguin’s White Horse
x Unknown
x Unknown
Brief bio of Maurice Sullins via hanapietri.com:
“Maurice Sullins was an airplane waxer in Joliet, Illinois, who began to paint at sixty. Legend has it a dream about a water fountain in France first compelled him to paint. Entirely self-taught, armed with an insatiable appetite for reading and a vivid imagination, he became a true master of his craft with a total command of color, composition, and technique. Over the course of a short career spanning fifteen years (1970-1985), Sullins produced some 1,200 paintings, most of which have never been seen before.”
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