From the collection of:
The Kentucky Library and Museum || VAM Home

This painting depicts a tobacco harvest on a Western Kentucky farm. The tobacco has been topped, and farmers are loading it onto a wagon.

About the Artist

Folk artist Helen La France (also seen as LaFrance) Orr was born in 1919 in Graves County, Kentucky. She started painting at the age of 5, inspired by her mother. “She placed a pencil in my hand and instructed me to paint what I saw,” Orr once remembered. “Then she would gently guide my hand across the paper.”

Young Helen’s first work was a large gray rabbit, which she painted on the back of a leftover piece of wallpaper, using watercolors given to her by an aunt. Her mother kept her supplied with paints by blending laundry bluing with dandelions and berries. The budding artist also created dolls for her younger sister using roots and branches.

Memories of rural Western Kentucky life are a favorite subject for La France Orr. Her paintings depict scenes from a bygone era—farmers plowing in the field, church picnics, cotton fields, river baptisms. They have been exhibited in galleries in Richmond, Kentucky; Columbus, Georgia; and St. Louis. And a biography of the artist is included in Outsider Art of the South, an art reference book by Kathy Moses.

La France Orr was enshrined in the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians, an educational poster and bookmark series produced by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, in 2004. For information about ordering the poster and bookmarks, visit the gallery web site [www.state.ky.us/agencies2/kchr/ggbk.htm].

Note: Helen La France Orr talks about how she paints her memories in the video segment “Painting: Helen La France,” found in Part 5: Folk/Traditional Arts of the Spectrum of Art DVD in the Visual Arts Toolkit.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: Compare this painting to the painting showing tobacco planting by La France Orr. What do the scenes have in common? How do they differ? How do the colors used reflect the different seasons shown?

Activity: Think about the activities you and your family do. Are there certain activities you do at certain times of year, such as planting, yard work, sports, or traditions? Create a visual calendar of your year by dividing a page into four sections and drawing an activity for a different season in each of the four sections.

Links

See samples of La France Orr’s paintings at Galerie Bonheur.
[www.galeriebonheur.com/memory/helenlafrance/lafrance.htm]

Read a biography of Helen La France Orr at the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights web site.
[www.state.ky.us/agencies2/kchr/HelenLaFrance.htm]