Rev. Johnnie Swearingen

1908-1993

Johnnie Swearingen was born in 1908 in Washington County, Texas.  His parents were sharecroppers.  At the age of 4, he claimed he had been called to preach and delivered his first sermon standing on a box between his parents.  Swearingen said that he began painting at the age of 12, often using the walls of his home as his canvas.  He couldn’t afford better materials so he relied on whatever was available including shoe polish and house paint on cardboard.  For several years, Swearingen travelled and worked in different places after having rebelled and getting into trouble.  He eventually returned to Texas when his father became ill and decided to stay.  He married and received his final religious calling to be ordained.  He began to devote more time to his painting and sold his paintings from his truck as well as setup a roadside stand in front of his house.  His rural scenes were poplar with locals and travelers and soon collectors began to discover him. He had business cards made announcing himself as “One of the best and oldest true primitive FOLK ARTISTS around today.  All My paintings are subjects or scenes from everyday life and are treated realistically.”  Often humor and biting social commentary are evident in works in which he depicted the devil disrupting church services.  Swearingen’s serious side was reflected in works with subject matter as the Passion of Christ, scenes of slavery, and manifestations of his visionary experiences.  He believed God was with him throughout his creation of certain inspired works.  Early in his career he mixed all combinations of media including oil paint, house paint, and even shoe polish and later his preferred surface was Masonite and oil paint.  He also used stretched canvases.  Occasionally he painted on found materials.  His body of work that he left behind established him as one of Texas’ most recognized and one of its finest self-taught artists. ⁷