Artist #14 Henry Sumpter

Henry was born in Myrtle Beach South Carolina in 1945. As a child Henry enjoyed meeting people from different parts of the world. As he grew his interest in art he grew a relationship with James H. Burroughs a noted local artist. The relationship grew into a four year scholarship and lead to many awards. Henry attended Chaflin College where he was introduced to batik master Leo Twiggs who taught at a neighboring college. It was during this time that Henry fell in love with the batik process. Briefly Henry worked in the Army as an artist during the Vietnam era. After the army Henry attended graduate school and then began to teach in the south, continuing to refine his art and coming up with new techniques for producing batiks. Henry likes to create paintings from dreams, tv, readings, and a vivid imagination of places that he has visited. Henry likes to leave the interpretation of his work up to the viewer.

http://www.visualdesignstudio.com/hiddentreasures.htm

I really like the piece of work by Henry Sumpter entitled Hidden Treasures. This work is the first painting of a series of paintings about people who toil in the soil. I like how Sumpter's work has a lot of detail without feeling the need to try to depict every little detail such as the one's in the faces of all the workers. I like how he used to circle to kind of highlight the story of what is beneath the soil that the workers can't see but we can, I think that is what gives this batik the most visual interest. I also like the technique that he used in the background so that he didn't have to depict everything that would be in the background. It fits in perfectly with the painting.