An exhibit of the last artwork available to the public by the late Peggy Truman will close October 21 at Gallery TPC at The Presbyterian Church. The exhibit opened October 24, 2020 for a private showing prior to a memorial service following Mrs. Truman’s death March 20, 2020 and has remained available to the public for a year.
Fifteen paintings, pen and ink prints of the Mariah Moore House and Green River Meeting House, and three numbered prints of a painting entitled Fountain Square, Past were donated by the Truman family to the First Presbyterian Church, which uses proceeds from sales for local missions like Habitat for Humanity.
A trained illustrator and fan of all things Kentucky, Peg enjoyed depicting women adorned in Derby hats and thoroughbreds surging toward a finish line. Not only could she vary the intense expressions of jockeys and horses, she was also adept at showing the diversity of feelings between people. Among the paintings on exhibit at the church gallery is a scene of two women with ten children, each expressing a different reaction to a scene not shown in the painting. We are left to imagine what they are thinking and seeing.
Peg purposely planned a series of paintings with gospel messages. “Mom’s intention for the paintings was to look at scripture through a contemporary lens,” said her daughter Marti Truman. Sometimes the message was obvious, with Christian symbols juxtaposed into political events as with a cross embedded into the image of a dismantled Berlin Wall in a painting owned by the Rev. David Welch of Tennessee.However, most of her message paintings require reflection, as in the disquiet of war and peace revealed in an unnerving painting of a worried woman cradling a baby in her arms below where relaxed soldiers cradle rifles.
To depict The Beatitudes from The Sermon on the Mount, Peg composed a trilogy of an impoverished, detached couple ignoring their crawling infant; a young man knocking on a door; and an elderly woman abiding in bed. Dissatisfied, the artist worried that the trilogy’s message was too obscure.” However, people do see it: the poor in spirit, the hungry, and the meek.
In her more abstract works you may find a butterfly, a fish, a paint palette, wings, teddy bears and/or a wooden cross – familiar symbols of an interior self in a shared world. She often used family members as models. Her husband, Lee Truman, is the prototype for the father grilling at a family backyard picnic, although the painting itself is not of her own family. In another work, a granddaughter is the young woman eagerly emerging from the tunnel of cocooned childhood into the adult world.
Horses, dogs, cats and people enrich her landscapes and local scenes. A gardener with a cat at her feet trims shrubbery along a path next to a side porch; a mare runs behind her frisky colt in a pasture. The viewer imagines what comes next. The gardener will trim all the hedges, go inside, feed the cat and get ready to walk across the street to church or a friend’s house. The little boy will break away from his indifferent mother and invite the starving child to his home or he’ll give in to his mother’s tug on his arm. The soldiers will remain on duty while the mother seeks a safe place for her child.
If you look closely at the drawings and paintings, you may be able to find Pegetty scribbled into shrubbery or grass. This nickname is hidden within tree leaves in a pen and ink drawing of Riverview of Hobson Grove on display at the historic home. Once challenged by her – “See if you can find it” – I finally found Pegetty scribbled into a tree in a landscape of horses in a field.
Of herself, she said, “I have always been a would-be illustrator. I hope that observers would see a story in my work… Life is so full of wonder and to be able to capture special moments in a work of art is such a privilege for me. I am thankful God has given me this opportunity.”
The Exhibit is open M-Th from 8:30-4:30; Fridays from 8:30-12:00; Sundays from 8:30-12:00.
The Presbyterian Church – 1003 Tenth Street – Bowling Green, KY – 270-843-4707
To purchase a painting, speak to the church office staff or email dsimmonsbg1@mac.com.
All sales proceeds go to local mission projects.
-by Diane Simmons
