Janis Price.
(1933-2022, Ohio)
Amish Horse Auction.
1981. Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated.
Image is 22"h x 30"w.
Frame is 34"w x 26"h.
Excellent condition.
Provenance: ex. Davenport/Kemp Collection.
The Mike Dale Collection.
Est.$2,000-$3,000.
Ship: $85

 Janis Price was born in Nashport, Ohio, in 1933. From an early age she was interested in art. As a child she also relished the tales of her grandmother and great-grandmother about the frontier and pioneering days in North Dakota and Oregon. At age 16 Price quit school and eloped with her sweetheart, Ulysses. Between the three children that followed and a part-time job, Price had little time to pursue her passion for painting. By the late 1970s, once her children had grown up, she returned to her first love: art. Price wanted to document the 19th and early 20th century life as told to her by her grandparents. She was also inspired by the Ohio Amish community around her, and many of her paintings, like the one offered here, document their way of life. This is a very early Price painting from 1981. Her grandparents' farm in Muskingum County, where Price grew up, is also featured in many of her works.

In 1978, Price read an article about the Museum of American Folk Art in New York (now the American Folk Art Museum) and sent them, unsolicited, photographs of her work. The photos made their way to Jay Johnson, who loved her self-taught painting's, and exhibited and sold them at his America's Folk Heritage Gallery in New York. In 1982, the income Price received from the paintings became more important when her beloved husband died of a heart attack at age 54. Johnson included Price in his book, co-authored by William C. Ketchum, Jr., American Folk Art of the Twentieth Century (Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1983). Johnson continued to represent Price until his death in 1990.

Her work has been displayed in Japan, Israel, and Switzerland; and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. It has also been featured on calendars and as cover art for several books, including Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns.

At age 89, Price lives in a modest one-story house in Newark, Ohio. When she paints, she works at an easel in a small room at the back of her home: "A lot of it is from memory. I just start and go from there. And it's always like I'm in the painting and seeing all these things, like I'm looking around…When I paint I'm just like a little kid playing: it's just fun," Price said. A natural visual storyteller, Price's naïve style provides a charming look back at simpler times and places.

Janis Price passed away Nov 4, 2022. The photo of her below was taken by her grandson in front of one of her prized paintings that he had purchased at a recent auction. What a remarkable life she led.