Neighbor Featured Artist #20: H.R. Lovell

Tennessee’s Artist-in-Residence Maintains a Presence in Greeneville

Isn’t it interesting how often treasures are found in unexpected places? Although great cities like Paris, New York, and Chicago are celebrated as the centers of fine art, with many opportunities for students seeking to launch their careers, quite often it is the countryside that produces artists of true genius. In such cases, it can seem that providence places creative doorways in the paths of folks unaware of their own potential. Once through the doorway, they seem to enter a place where serendipity rules, so that one connection leads to another, and creative advancement accelerates. A good example of this happenstance is found in the story of H.R. Lovell, Tennessee’s Artist-in-Residence, and a self-described “farmer who paints.” Twice now in the last ten years, the General Assembly has selected him to represent and exemplify our state at its best. With roots deep in agriculture, and from a farm that might be found in any one of Tennessee’s three regions, Lovell truly does embody the state in which he was born. As someone whose paintings were first shown in Greeneville more than five years ago, he is an artist/neighbor worth spending some quality time with.
H.R. Lovell was born and raised in Cheatham County, Tennessee, and still operates his family’s farm there near Ashland City. Although he considers his art career to have started when he was nearly thirty, the talent he has cultivated was there all along. “I could always draw,” he says. “I was drawing before I even started school but it was always in black and white.” Self-taught, Lovell got his first chance to experiment with color when asked to do a drawing of a friend’s childhood home. Not satisfied with the result in colored pencil, he re-did the piece using a set of dime store watercolors. “To be honest, I thought it looked pretty loud,” he says. But the friend was pleased and paid ten dollars for the work. “I was thinking all the time that I might have overcharged her,” Lovell recalls. He continued to experiment and seek advice about better materials. When he had several paintings done another friend noticed that one was of her grandfather’s homeplace. After purchasing it, the painting traveled with her to her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a real estate agent, one of her clients was legendary Navajo artist R.C. Gorman, to whom she showed Lovell’s painting. The result was an invitation to exhibit at Gorman’s Navajo Gallery. Having no familiarity with the art world, Lovell at first declined. “I had to confess that I’d never heard of R.C. Gorman, much less having any idea who he was,” says Lovell. “Then he called me and told me to watch the Today Show the next morning. Sure enough, he was featured and interviewed. I did some rethinking and told R.C. I’d come out to New Mexico, even though I only had six paintings.” After the show at the Navajo Gallery, Lovell’s production was back to square one, since all six paintings sold, even after Gorman tripled the prices. This would prove to be a recurring pattern in Lovell’s career. “I was getting ready to do a show in Nashville a few years later but before it opened, Mel Tillis asked to see my paintings and ended up buying all of them. We had to cancel the show.” His wide base of collectors makes Lovell’s originals a scarce commodity and has led to his production of high-quality giclees of most of his paintings.
One Saturday afternoon in the 1990’s, H.R. Lovell discovered James-Ben Gallery in Franklin, TN. “He was out for a drive and wandered up the stairs,” recalls James-Ben Stockton. “We’ve always focused on creating a relaxed, low-key experience for visitors and H.R. really connected to that. I found his paintings to be both superb and unassuming, reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth. And his personal story was a great example of how art can open doors into a new experience.” Stockton found out that Gorman had, in fact, nicknamed Lovell the “Andrew Wyeth of the South”. James-Ben Gallery offered Lovell his first one-man show. “While we were in process of putting it together, H.R. was first designated Tennessee Artist-in-Residence by the General Assembly,” says Stockton. “The opening reception became an occasion which our state legislators attended and where H.R. was presented with the official proclamation.”
Lovell works in both watercolor and egg tempera, a technique employed by the Renaissance masters from the days before oil paint came into common use. “He tends to choose subjects that evoke memories in the minds of viewers,” says Stockton. “Old homes, abandoned farm wagons, quilts – and remarkable portraits ranging from the marvelous faces of World War I veterans to young Mennonite girls – H.R. has a wonderful gift for touching hearts.” Most paintings begin with pencil sketches, connecting them with Lovell’s earliest efforts in drawing. A segment on PBS’s Tennessee Crossroads brought Lovell to the attention of a wide variety of art enthusiasts. With every passing year, that particular show is rated among the top five requested for repeat airings by viewers. Lovell’s work has been discovered and collected by such notables as Randy Travis, Burl Ives, Tanya Tucker, Pat Head-Summit, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, and Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Bush administration. All are drawn to the work of a man who combines a good heart with astonishing talent. “One of his more recent paintings contains a wonderful personal story,” says Stockton. “H.R. was doing an iris painting as a tribute to the state flower. One of his biggest fans and collectors was terminally ill and kept asking to see it even if it wasn’t finished. H.R. took it to his hospital room one Tuesday and they spent the afternoon talking about it and reminiscing. It was their last visit.” “I was so glad that I was able to give him such enjoyment that day,” recalls Lovell. “In his honor, I renamed the piece ‘Tuesday’s Gift’.”
Since moving to Greeneville, James-Ben: Studio and Gallery has introduced H.R. Lovell’s work to a Northeast Tennessee audience. A one-man show and reception featuring Lovell originals was mounted in the gallery, in part through the generosity of the son whose late father inspired “Tuesday’s Gift.” Lovell’s paintings are a tribute to Tennessee, and a wonderful thread connecting the different regions of the state. His work is always available through James-Ben at Greeneville’s regional gallery. Meet H.R. Lovell through the gift of his artistry. He is truly a distinguished artist/neighbor.