Georgia – Page 5 – Larry Johnston, Nostalgic Artist

Ross’ Diner

December 29, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Ross Diner

Cartersville, Georgia

Established in 1945, Ross Diner has been a part of 4 generations. While living in Cartersville, during the 1980’s, I learned some history of north Georgia and its businesses. Diners always intrigued me, so I took pictures of them and painted the history in my paintings, as I look back to the time when they were popular and the talk of the town. Ross Diner still sits in the middle of the town at 17 N. Wall Street, in Cartersville, Georgia.

The diner was famous for its breakfast menu, which featured their homemade biscuits along with the Country breakfast and lunches they served. They open at 6:30 am and closed at 2:30 pm Monday through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday the hours are 6:30 am to 8:00 pm and 6:30 am to 2:30 pm on Saturday.

Ross Diner became one of my favorite paintings and a popular one for the locals. It was part of my Cartersville print set, which included the 4-way Lunch, the Cartersville Depot, Valley View, Tilley Park, Tilley Trolley, Euharlee Covered Bridge and Roselawn.

I painted several Cartersville places, and some really close by, here are the links…

Cartersville Depot

Ross Diner

Roselawn, Sam Jones Home

Euharlee Covered Bridge

Euharlee Covered Bridge in the Spring

4 Way Lunch

December 29, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

4 Way Lunch

Cartersville, Georgia

Located in Cartersville, Georgia, at the corner of East Main Street (Hwy 41) and Gilmer Street, the “4-Way”, as the locals called it, has been there since 1931. I painted the painting in about 1984, when I was exhibiting in art shows in the area. It was one of my most popular paintings of the time.

I painted several Cartersville places, and some really close by, here are the links…

Cartersville Depot

Ross Diner

Roselawn, Sam Jones Home

Euharlee Covered Bridge

Euharlee Covered Bridge in the Spring

Barber Pole

December 29, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

The Barber Pole

Cave Spring, Georgia

You may have seen some of my other Barber related paintings. I painted the Barber Chair, from a shop I found in Cave Springs, Georgia. This Barber pole was from the same shop. As you can see on the window, it says “Air Conditioned” and “Hot Shower Bath”. I was curious about the combination because they seemed to be from different eras. The story, as I was told, it was on a truck route, so they had drivers stop in for a haircut and a bath. As Air Conditioning became popular, it was also included in the sign.

The Barber Chair and the Barber Pole became popular items, especially at the Cave Spring show and the Rome, Georgia show. Eventually, I painted four paintings, which became one of my sets of 4. They were the Barber Chair, Barber Pole, Burma Shave Barn and the Barber Tonics. The set became one of my most popular sets across the country.

No Prints Available at this time. If you are interested in a print, let me know, I am always looking for new good quality vendors!

Links to other barber related paints I have done can be found here:

Big Chicken

December 27, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

“The Big Chicken”

Marietta, Georgia

I was told by an Eastern Airlines Pilot, many years ago, that when flying into Atlanta, Georgia, when he saw the big chicken, he knew when to start his descent into Hartsfield Airport. The Big Chicken was 68 feet high. The eye rolled around and the tail feather on the back of its head went up and down. It was called “Johnny Rebs, Chick, Chuck and Shake.” You can just about guess what they served.

When I arrived in Marietta, in 1983, the building was occupied by Kentucky Fried Chicken. Many years later, when the mechanisms no longer worked, they decided to tear the building down, but the community response convinced them to rebuild the chicken. The building now is just slightly shorter, but now everything has been rebuilt and updated into working order. They even have a spiked roof, so the birds wouldn’t perch on top of it. You can see the building at the corner of Hwy 41 and Roswell Road, in Marietta, Georgia.

When I painted the picture, I had already taken photos of the original Big Chicken, so I decided to use that version to paint.

around the sides of the wood.

11″ x 14″………. $148.82

16″ x 20″ ………. $204.72

16″ x 20″ ………. $375.00 Original painting on stretched canvas

Behind the House

December 26, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Behind the House

Cartersville, Georgia

I worked with a lady, during the time, when I was teaching myself to paint realism. She had taken some Art classes and had a big painting hanging in her office of an old barn. The roof had collapsed and you could see the boards sticking out the top, where the roof had broken. Next to it was an old brick silo.

I was impressed with the subject she had chosen, so I took my camera and scoured the countryside around northern Indiana, expecting to find old fallen down barns everywhere. For 2 days, I drove around and only found nicely painted red barns, white barns, but very few weathered barns. Even the houses had been kept up.

So when we moved to Georgia, there were old houses, old barns, outhouses and even old weathered farms. I took lots of pictures, so when I was asked to teach a painting class, at an art supply store, that was my first project. The first painting was of a shed that was located behind the main house on a property.

I called the painting “Behind the House”. I learned that teaching a 4-week painting was a mistake, since the students missed weeks along the way, that they had paid for. We eventually got through it, but all my classes after that were quick 2-hour paintings, that they could finish the same day.

Acworth House

December 26, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Acworth House

Acworth, Georgia

When I first moved from California to Georgia in 1983 and started exhibiting my work, I found a nice show in Bartow County in the community of Acworth, which sits along the shores of Lake Allatoona. As I looked for a subject to paint, I found several. One painting from the area, was “The Gathering Place”, which was an old shed. To compliment the subject matter the I was painting at that time, was the Acworth house, which was an abandoned home in the area.

Wings For You

December 17, 2014February 22, 2021 Admin

Wings for You!

Lilburn, Georgia

I have had businesses and restaurants commission me to paint a painting of their places. One of them was “Wings for You!” that started out in a concession trailer. They had served wings from that trailer for a number of years and were in the process of expanding into a shopping center space.

As a reminder of how they started, they wanted the painting to hang near their front lobby, for all to see, when they entered the restaurant.

The restaurant was located, in an eastern suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, but unfortunately, I have not seen their new business after it was finished, so I am unable to report on it at this time.