Words and Images by Jenny Lynn Davis
The Walker County Arts Alliance is hosting a new exhibit this summer that brings together decades of creativity, history, and family memory.
Washed in Color: The Artwork of D.J. Brasfield and Jean Brasfield runs from July 10 through September 12 at the Walker County Arts Alliance gallery. The show features watercolor paintings, needlepoint, and photographs from several private collections, all created by the late D.J. and Jean Brasfield.
The couple’s grandson, Andrew Brasfield, who works at Bevill State Community College and serves with the Walker County Arts Alliance, said organizing the exhibit has been meaningful not only as a grandson, but also as someone who cares deeply about local history and the arts.
“This show is especially close to my heart because it features the work of my grandparents,” he says. “Both of my grandparents were artists, and their love of art is what brought them together.”
D.J. Brasfield was a commercial artist with a passion for architecture. After studying art at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), he produced detailed watercolor paintings of buildings around Walker County, particularly those on campus at the former Walker College (now Bevill State). “If you go into Rowland Hall at Bevill, the bottom floor is lined with watercolors he painted of the old Walker College buildings,” Andrew says.
Jean Brasfield, who was born in colonial India and raised in England, worked as a scenery artist in a theater during World War II. That’s where her eye for detail developed, according to her son, Dee. “Her work is whimsical but always full of detail. If you look closely, there’s so much going on,” he says.
The couple met during the war while stationed in Wales – D.J. with the U.S. Army and Jean with the British Red Cross. After the war, Jean moved to the U.S. with D.J. and eventually focused on watercolor figures, pets, and elaborate needlepoint, some of which took months to complete.
The exhibit includes pieces loaned by the Brasfield family as well as community members who have preserved the Brasfields’ work in homes and offices for years. Among them are Jasper First Methodist Church, Eddie Jackson, Rusty Richardson, Bevill State Community College, Carrie Young, and Jack and Beverly Laughlin.
Washed in Color is free to attend. Opening hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 10 A.M. – 3 P.M. The Walker County Arts Alliance gallery is located at 1500 Indiana Ave, Jasper, AL 35501, on the Jasper Campus of Bevill State Community College.
Exhibits like Washed in Color are made possible with support from the Walker Area Community Foundation.
To learn more about The Walker County Arts Alliance and their mission to promote and support the arts in the local community, visit wcart.org. WL
