Georgia – Page 3 – Larry Johnston, Nostalgic Artist

Fire Dog

January 1, 2015February 22, 2021 Admin

The Fire Dog

While in the area of Gray, Georgia exhibiting at a show I called, “Little Beaver Creek”, because there were several shows with that name, I came across a fire hydrant that caught my eye, sitting on the side of the road. I was in the process of painting Fire Dept. related paintings, so I stopped and took a few pictures of it. When it came to painting it, I decided to add the dog since the Dalmatian was also Fire Department related. What better than a puppy.

The set of four, I completed, was the Fire Dog, a Fire Truck, Fire Hose reel, and Fire Station.

Concord Covered Bridge

January 1, 2015February 22, 2021 Admin

Links to other covered bridge paintings I have done can be found here:

Mecca Covered Bridge

Neet Covered Bridge

Bridgeton Covered Bridge

Beeson Covered Bridge

Euharlee Covered Bridge

Euharlee Covered Bridge-Spring

Concord Covered Bridge

Poole’s Mill Covered Bridge

Pepsi Covered Brid

Brown Barn Texaco

January 1, 2015February 22, 2021 Admin

Brown Barn Texaco

Cartersville, Georgia

There was a time when I enjoyed painting pictures of old fallen down barns. While living in Cartersville, Georgia, I was driving down Sugar Valley Road, when I saw a farm-house, with a barn and a gas pump near it, so I took some photographs of it. I eventually painted the picture and found that people wanted more pictures of gas pumps, so I eventually painted other pumps, like Shell, Gulf, Sinclair, American, Marathon and of course several Texaco pumps. We called this one “Brown Barn Texaco” since I later painted one with a red barn in the paining. We called it “Red Barn Texaco”, of course.

During one of the art festivals, a young couple purchased the painting, which was a 9″ x 12″ canvas acrylic painting. They had a pick-up truck that they had restored and wanted me to paint the truck in this painting. Instead of adding to the painting, we agreed that a second painting would be done as a continuation of this painting, to hang next to this one. (Restored Truck painting)

Bradford’s Store

January 1, 2015February 22, 2021 Admin

Bradford’s Store.

Pine Log, Georgia

Bradford’s Store, located on the corner of Calico Valley Road and Pine Log Road was the areas general store, which housed the Post Office from 1833 until 1979. The area was called Pine Log by the Cherokee Indians prior to 1785 (Georgia Hwy 140, three miles east of US Hwy 411) In 1906 the L & N Railroad was completed and ran from Cartersville, GA to Knoxville, TN and a depot was built and the community became “Rydal”. The station is gone, but the Post office, built in 1908, still exists.

I had exhibited in a local art festival, called the “Pine Log Arts & Crafts Festival” for several years, so the painting of Bradford’s became very popular in many towns around the area. The last I heard was, the store was purchased and restored after being vacant for a number of years. The Art Festival has been held at the United Methodist Church Campground, in Rydal.

Red Barn Texaco

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Red Barn, Texaco

Cartersville, Georgia

After I had painted the Texaco pump with the brown barn in the background, I called it brown Barn Texaco. This painting was similar, but needed some more color to the painting, so I added the Red barn. It was one of several different brands that I eventually painted. Gas pumps became quite a collection subject, for people that made a habit of buying my work.

My prints were available to buy in a 5″ x 7″ and 11″ x 14″, including a mat around the print. I even made barn-wood frames for a while, then switched to a variety of frame colors: black, Burgundy, forest green and colonial blue. .Now I offer the prints on stretched canvas, to make it look like the original.

Whistle Stop Depot

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Whistle Stop Depot

Juliette, GA

from the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”

While traveling and exhibiting in Art shows and festivals, I had done several shows in and around Atlanta, Georgia. When the movie came out “Fried Green Tomatoes, we found that the movie was filmed in Georgia and that you could actually eat at the Whistle Stop Cafe’. One weekend, we decided to visit the restaurant and cafe.

When we arrived, we found the quaint little one street town called Juliette. It is located 8 miles east of Forsyth, GA. If you cross the RR tracks, you just missed the town as it was a street just before the tracks on the right. As I remember, the cafe had already closed for the day, but we walked around and took pictures of the town.

I painted a set of 4 paintings from the town, one of them being the Whistle Stop Depot. They had purchased the depot for one dollar, as it had been sitting in a field for many years. It now sits on the main street of town because of regulations as to sitting along-side the tracks.

Whistle Stop Cafefried

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

The Movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” became a classic and was filmed during a time when I lived in Georgia. Last week in History of a painting, I highlighted the Whistle Stop Depot. This week I’m showing you the painting I did of the Whistle Stop Cafe, in Juliette, Georgia, the location where the movie, “Fried Green Tomatoes” was filmed. The painting is acrylic on stretched canvas. The owner of the restaurant purchased the panting and then had me paint another one without the gas pumps. The pumps were movie props and went back to the movie lot, when the film was completed. If you visit the Whistle stop cafe, you get fried green tomatoes with every meal. They’re pretty good to. I painted four paintings related to the movies, then put prints of them in a frame as a set of 4 matted and framed prints. The print sets were very popular, especially in the Atlanta area. One of my favorite shows was just east of Atlanta at Stone Mountain, called the “Yellow Daisy Festival”. It ranked in the top for shows in the country and several times #1.

Here are links to the other 3 paintings from the town of Juliette. (That is the town of Whistle Stop.) Whistle Stop Depot, Fried Green Tomatoes Church, Fried Green Tomatoes (Threadgood) House.

“Fried Green Tomatoes” Threadgood House

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Fried Green Tomatoes, Threadgood House

Senoia, Georgia House

Lost Mountain Store

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Fox Theatre Atlanta #2 The King and I

December 31, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

The Fox Theatre

Atlanta, GA

“The King and I”

While exhibiting in Georgia, at one of the Arts Festivals, I had a print of a painting that I had previously sold. A customer liked it so much that they wanted a painting of it. Since I don’t paint identical paintings, except when someone wants several of them for gifts, such as a family home, in which I have painted as many as four. They went to all four siblings of a family.

We agreed to paint the FOX Theatre, but with a different view and a special car. The First Fox painting was “Singin’ in the Rain”. The second painting featured “The King and I”.

Other Theatres I have painted are: The Palace in South Bend, IN; The Reese in Plymouth, IN; Fox in Detroit, Atlanta’s Fox: The Chicago Theatre; The Los Angeles Theatre; Loew’s Theatre in Jersey City, NJ, Warner Theatre, Elkhart and the Lerner Sign in Elkhart, Indiana.

around the sides of the wood.

24” x 36” ………. Original Painting on stretched canvas not available.