Birmingham Meeting House III 1941

Horace Pippin made this painting of the Birmingham Meeting House using oil on canvas. The way that Pippin renders that stonework gives it a life of its own. I can almost feel the weight of each individual stone. You can tell he was thinking hard about those shapes, that texture. The stark contrast between the dark greys and the bright whites almost feels graphic. I imagine Pippin standing before his canvas, carefully mixing his colors. He has a limited palette, but that doesn't limit his vision; rather, it focuses it. I see him layering the paint, building up the surface, one small stroke at a time. There's a quiet intensity in his process, a deep connection to his subject. Maybe he was thinking about his place in the community? Pippin, like so many artists, reminds us that painting is not just about representation but about feeling, memory, and the power of simple things.