SC People - Artists

Maria Martin Bachman

(1796-1863) Maria Martin Bachman was a 19th century natural history painter who worked with John Audubon.

Blue Sky

(1938- ) Blue Sky is a contemporary painter and sculptor known for his large murals and public sculptures who lives in Columbia, SC.

Thomas Coram

(1756-1811) Thomas Coram was an 18th-century landscape artist who painted the Mulberry Plantation in Berkeley County, SC.

David Drake

(about 1801- about 1870s) David Drake lived in Edgefield as a slave and, after the Civil War, as a freed man who made distinctive stoneware pottery, often engraved with short poems or couplets.

Charles Fraser

(1782-1860) Charles Fraser was a Charleston painter who created miniature portraits for people to carry with them.

Pearl Fryar

Pearl Fryar is a topiary artist in Bishopville, SC. His garden has over 1,000 ornate art pieces.

Jonathan Green

(1955- ) Jonathan Green is a contemporary African-American painter and printmaker who was born in Gardens Corner, SC.

Archibald Grimkè

(1849-1930) Born in Charleston, SC, Archibald Grimkè was a lawyer, journalist, community leader, and involved in the early NAACP. The abolitionist Grimkè sisters were his aunts.

Edwin Augustus Harleston

(1882-1931) Edwin Augustus Harleston was an African American portrait painter and businessman from Charleston.

Elise Forrest Harleston

(1891-1970) Elise Forrest Harleston was South Carolina’s first African-American female photographer. She worked alongside her husband, Edwin Augustus Harleston.

Anna Hyatt Huntington

(1876-1973) Anna Hyatt Huntington was a well-known sculptor who, along with her husband, established Brookgreen Gardens in Georgetown County as a public garden and figurative sculpture gallery.

Alfred Hutty

(1878-1958) Painter during the Charleston Renaissance who worked in etching, oil, and watercolor.

(1930- ) Jasper Johns grew up in Allendale, SC, and is an influential contemporary artist in the genres of Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. He often uses symbols such as numbers, the US flag, and maps in his works.

William H. Johnson

(1901-1970) William H. Johnson was an African American painter from Florence who painted distinctive modernist imagery of African American life.

Henrietta Johnston

(ca. 1674-1729) Working in Charleston, Henrietta Johnston was the first female professional artist in America.

Robert Mills

(1781-1855) Born in Charleston, SC, Robert Mills was one of the first Americans to become a professional architect.

Philip Simmons

(1912-2009) Philip Simmons was a nationally acclaimed Charleston blacksmith.

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith

(1876-1958) Alice Ravenel Huger Smith was an artist during the Charleston Renaissance known for her watercolors and woodblock prints.

Anna Heyward Taylor

(1879-1956) Anna Heyward Taylor was an artist active in the Charleston Renaissance who became well-known for her woodblock prints.

Jeremiah Theus

(1716-1774) Jeremiah Theus was a painter from Switzerland who came to Charleston and became a well-established portrait artist, painting many people from Charleston society families.