Lyda B. Davis

[Mike McCarty]

Not exactly a household name. This is my grandmother and the painting is of my mother painted in oil on board in 1918, the year my mother was born. It is inscribed "Betty" which is my mother's name. My grandmother was not known for her portraits and as far as I know this is the only one in existence.

According to my mother, her mother was left at a convent in San Antonio as a young girl. This would have been sometime in the late 1800's. In the few years that she stayed there, the nuns gave her some training in painting. Beyond this training she was self taught.

I used to sit at her knee and watch her paint landscapes in oils with turp and linseed oil. She would paint, drink iced tea and smoke Winston cigarettes. All these poisons finally killed her at about 90 years of age.

She would paint fairly large canvases for $50 to make the rent. She lived in a govt. housing project.

[Mike McCarty]

This painting of dogs was done in 1946 and is the only other example of her work that I have been able to reproduce.

[Mari DeRuntz]

Mike, there's a Great American Novel in this story.

[Josef Sy]

Mike, you should write a biography on her. It seems that she had a really interesting artist's life. You could gather up all of her works and set up a website for her!

I really like the painting of the dogs.