Glass HOUSES

ARTIST DONNA WOODS’ HAND-PAINTED

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS DEPICT LOCAL HOMES

A
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY CHARLOTTE BLOM

An old cedar chest holds remnants of Donna

Woods’ very first craft projects, most likely sal-
vaged from Vacation Bible School. When she was
13 years old, she painted her first mural on the
wall of her cousin’s bedroom, a depiction of
Holly Hobbie, the blue-bonneted little girl char-
acter popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s. At 50, Woods
is still using her artistic ability to manage her
own interior design business, Southern Art, as
well as to hand paint Christmas ornaments.
In her small studio attached to the black and
white checkered-floor kitchen of her Hattiesburg
home, Woods meticulously paints houses, or
other images, onto clear glass orbs on commis-
sion. Each house ornament takes her about one
or two hours. She asks her clients to give her 3-4
photos of the houses to work from. Woods says
the idea just came to her before she fell asleep
one night about eight years ago.
“I just think the good Lord gave me that
idea,” she says.
Many of her patrons are from church. Woods
believes her best advertising being word of
mouth. One year, she said, someone placed an
order for 20 of the same barn. Another customer
ordered 30 ornaments for her Sunday school
class. But mostly, people place orders of their
own homes to give to family members or friends.

a cc e n t s o u t h m i s s i s s i p p i 43
 After graduating from
Lamar University in Beaumont,
Texas with a bachelor’s degree
in interior design and a minor
in art, Woods moved to
Natchez to be closer to the
antebellum homes she loved to
study. Under her mentor and
boss, now deceased designer
Hal Garner, Woods learned a
lot about historic eras and
restoration of old homes and
antiques. To this hands-on edu-
cation she attributes her ability
to not only paint homes but the
faux finishing and murals, cabi-
net glazes, hand-painted furni-
ture, accessories and antiques,
house portraits, pen & ink com-
missions for personal stationer-
ies and such, and ornaments.
“Anything that stands still,
44 a cc e n t s o u t h m i s s i s s i p p i
I’ll paint on it. If you stand still
long enough, I may just paint
on your face!” she jokes, a
pewter painter’s palette pinned
to her red shirt.
Woods loves the business of
art.
“There are always new
things in design. New types of
products, every person you
work with is new. Every person
brings a new experience, and I
love people. I love helping
them,” she says.
In the late ‘80’s, Woods’
vocational calling was tested,
and she returned to school to
get her teaching certificate. She
learned this was a mistake. She
taught junior high for less than
one year in Texas.
“I realized the hard way I
did not have the teaching gift. I
have the talent and skills, but
not for teaching. And that’s
OK.”
Shortly after, Woods
returned to Mississippi where
she landed a job at Hederman
Brothers, a printing company in
Jackson. She also joined
Broadmoor Baptist Church,
where she met her husband,
Gary Woods. Another connec-
tion she made at church was
with Don Baker, who commis-
sioned a painting that Woods
says “put her on the map.”
This job brought back to her
love of old houses.
As an engagement gift,
Baker wanted her to paint the
Windsor Mansion, a ruined
antebellum home in Claiborne
County, from a Union soldier’s
sketch. She was asked to put
the painting on display at an
antique show and soon she was
getting orders for it. She was
able to use her employee dis-
count at Hederman Brothers to
make 2,000 prints. Soon, she
was shipping her rendition all
over the country and the world,
including to Brazil, Germany
and Spain.
In ’95, Woods and her hus-
band moved to Hattiesburg,
where she worked as a rug
sales manager for Anderson,
with one of her Windsor prints
hung above her desk. About
two years later, she was looking
through the newspaper, and she
saw the Secret Gallery was
looking for a manager.
“My eyes fell on that ad. with Mississippi on one side,
Again, I think that was God,” and on the other, the greeting
she said. “Merry Christmas, Y’all.”
Slowly but surely, she start-
ed cutting days off her work
schedule. Eventually, Woods
became self-employed full time,
shifting focus to her Southern
Art interior design business,
TO PLACE ORDERS
and painting Christmas orna-
ments.
Contact Donna Woods at
For this Christmas, Woods
(601) 543-0340.
began taking orders as early as
Donna Woods’ orna-
last February. In addition to
ments are available at
house ornaments, Woods has
Main Street Books in
painted renditions of historic
downtown Hattiesburg.
buildings in downtown
Merry Christmas Y’all is
Hattiesburg, and of the Area
$10, house ornaments are
Development Partnership’s dec-
$35, and others are
orative swan. She is also cur-
$16.95.
rently working on an order for
the Hattiesburg visitor’s bureau
a cc e n t s o u t h m i s s i s s i p p i 45