The majority of W. Thornton’s work focused on Arkansas barns, and that’s what we were most familiar with. But we found cotton gins, farm scenes, animals, objects from around our house and much more.
Click through the collection by category below.
Barns
Arkansas barns were dad’s favorite. Thousands of barn paintings made from thousands of photographs. Here’s a small sample of them, as seen through the eyes of W. Thornton.
Cotton Gins
Dad grew up the son of a sharecropper near McCrory, Arkansas. Trips to the cotton gin were part of everyday life for him. In later years, he and my mom sought out these once majestic buildings all over the state, photographing and then painting them.
Nature
These paintings are a window into my dad’s love of the outdoors. From mountains we climbed when I was a kid and lakes we fished, to animals, insects and flowers.
People and Animals
Of the thousands of pieces of art created by W. Thornton, people and animals number the fewest. But, some of his earliest work are pencil sketches of the human form.
Around Arkansas
I was most familiar with dad’s barns. Perhaps what surprised me the most in what we found were the recognizable landmarks from around Arkansas.