Painting lessons with Jimmy Carter, Paula Deen selling out quickly

PLAINS — If you’ve ever wanted to take a painting class in the company of a former president and a celebrity chef while under the tutelage of an accomplished artist, the spots are selling fast.

President Jimmy Carter and Albany native Paula Deen will headline the event that will be taught by award-winning Georgia artist James Richards, of Atlanta, on Jan. 23 in Plains.

“We’re about sold out,” Kim Fuller, Carter’s niece and director of the Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, said Friday. “There’s only four or five of the spots still open for painting.”

The fundraiser benefits the historic site and the Plains Better Home Town organization. “We’re splitting it right down the middle,” Fuller said.

Dubbed “Painting, Paula and a President,” the Jan. 23 session is 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and costs $500, which includes breakfast and lunch. Package plans, including overnight stays, were also available at prices ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, with nearly if not all of those already sold out as well.

“We started working on it back before Christmas,” Fuller said. “We were promoting it as a Christmas gift, but, to be quite honest, it didn’t go that well before Christmas.”

After Christmas, however, sales became brisk. Available spot were grabbed up “this week and last week,” she said. Anyone interested in participating, Fuller said, needs to “go ahead and get it done pretty quick.”

Participants are responsible for providing their own paint and canvas for the class. Fuller said participants also have been asked to bring a photo for subject matter for their paintings. She said organizers would also have some photos on hand that painters can use for inspiration.

Many of the participants will be from outside Southwest Georgia. Fuller said supporters of the Carter Center in Atlanta have signed up and that participants are coming from places as far away as Minneapolis, upper state New York and Baltimore. There’s also been a good response from many of Richards’ students from the Atlanta area.

“Most of our response has been from outside Southwest Georgia,” she said. “We’re not surprised, because of the cost of the lessons and packages.”

Deen’s magazine editor is expected to be on hand to cover the event for her magazine. Meanwhile, Richards came down before Thanksgiving and has already done a portrait of Carter.

“He’s got that hanging at his house,” Fuller said.

Carter and Deen have teamed up previously for charity, appearing in 2012 in a fundraiser for the Cancer Coalition of South Georgia. In 2005 and 2006, Deen visited Plains for her television cooking show.