Jimmy Carter, Paula Deen headline Plains event

PLAINS — Two of Southwest Georgia’s biggest celebrities were on hand this weekend, to learn about oil painting from a master artist and to help raise money for a cause.

The aptly named Painting, Paula and a President event at the Plains Community Center on Saturday featured the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter with his wife, Rosalynn; national cooking personality Paula Deen, an Albany native, and well-known Georgia artist James Richards.

“Well, good morning, everyone,” Carter said when he arrived around 10 a.m. “We’re tickled to have Paula Deen here with us today. … I hope you have a real good time and get a lot of good information about painting. Thank you all for coming. Now let’s get to work.”

According to Kim Fuller, Carter’s niece and director of Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, the idea was to raise money for the site and for the Plains Better Home Town program to help provide improvements to the city. Proceeds from the event were to be split equally between the two organizations.

“We wanted to do something where the community could come together and be involved, and realized that since we had a lot of artists in the area, this would be a neat thing to do,” Fuller said Saturday. “Of course, it’s not just area artists who are here today. They’ve come from all around the country.”

She said many of the 42 amateur and advanced painters who came for the day-long class came from as far away as New York and Connecticut. To attend the class, which included breakfast and lunch, each participant paid a fee of $500.

“This is incredible,” Deen said during a break in Richard’s class. “Every time I get to do something with Mr. Jimmy and Ms. Rosalynn, it’s incredible. They both are just ordinary … extraordinary people, and any time (Carter) calls and says, ‘Paula, would you …?’ the answer is always yes. I’ve helped him with his Cancer Coalition, and things like what we’re doing today. This is to help grow Plains.”

Deen arrived with her own easel and supplies, though she said she’s always worked in watercolors.

Susan “Bubbles” Greene, an Albany resident who sits on the board of Deen’s Bag Lady Foundation, helped come up with the concept for the event, she said.

“We were looking at several things,” Greene said, “and I asked Jill (Stuckey) to come over so we could talk about it. We wanted to do something here and not necessarily have to go to the civic center in Americus. We’d done something like this at Lake Oconee in August and it was extremely successful.”

Jill Stuckey chairs the board of the Friends of Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and sits on the board of the Plains Better Home Town program.

“I conduct a lot of workshops all over the world,” Richards said, “But it’s nice to do this in conjunction with more of a charitable type event. It takes on a different sort of flair, so there’s less pressure on me.”

Richards, a self-taught impressionist, said that when he teaches, he tries to stay away from painting techniques and concentrates more on the interplay of light and shadow and what makes an image “work.”

“We’re looking at what light does to things,” Richards said. “How it bounces off things, how it creates shadows and values. It’s really more about learning how to see. I demonstrate things differently every time just to keep people from settling into a method.”

Richards said he donated his time for the event.

In addition to the Saturday class, for a fee of $2,000 students could participate in a “sleepover” with Paul Deen at the Plains Inn that evening, along with two art lessons and dinner with the artist and the Carters. The visit would be topped off with reserved seats in Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school class on Sunday morning.

As a less expensive option, for $1,500 the students could spend the night at the historic Windsor Hotel in Americus and still receive the lessons and the dinner with the Carters and Paula Deen.

For $1,000, participants could stay overnight at the Windsor Hotel in nearby Americus, receive one art lesson and attend the dinner.

The Painting, Paula and a President fundraising event in Plains included breakfast and lunch for participants. (Staff Photo: Jim West)

Examples of James Richard’s impressionist artwork were displayed around the Plains Community Center. (Staff Photo: Jim West)