Clementine Hunter was an important African-American folk artist/painter. Born in Louisiana just a couple decades after the Civil War, Clementine Hunter was the granddaughter of slaves. She grew up living and working on a plantation herself (Melrose Plantation), at first picking cotton before being called up to “The Big House†to do domestic chores. The plantation owner offered the main house to artists from New Orleans as a retreat. It was from these artists where Hunter found her inspiration (and her tools). Illiterate and uneducated, Clementine Hunter had a god-given, self-taught talent. She would take the discarded paints and brushes left by the visiting artists and “mark†her first picture on a window shade in her tiny cabin. Her works depicted early 20th century plantation life; the community of African-Americans who worked and lived together picking cotton, going to church, attending baptisms and such. Over 5,000 pieces have been attributed to her.
