Typically bold and joyful oil on canvas by leading North Carolina folk / outsider artist Sam Ezell. Signed lower left. Born in Mebane, North Carolina in 1953, Ezell left school at sixteen to help support his mother and sisters. It wasn't until 2008, when his friend the folk artist Bernice Sims asked him to paint something for her, that he picked up a brush just to oblige her and found that he enjoyed it "even more than fishing". His simple, bright paintings of everyday sights; a Dukes mayonnaise jar, a chicken, a country church, were quickly popular. Then he lost most of the sight in one eye. Rather than giving up on painting, he began to make the large, colorful abstract images that have caught the notice of collectors, especially in the Southeast. Ezell's work can be found in a growing number of galleries, exhibitions, auctions, and private collections. Approx. 64" x 48"