When Howard Finster died in 2001, his famed Paradise Garden folk art environment slid into a decade-long decline, and the steady flow of tourists visiting this struggling northwest Georgia corner ...

Born in Valley Head in 1916, Finster spent decades as a preacher in Alabama and Georgia. He said he had visions from the age of three, and began creating folk art with Bible verses and themes ...

In 1989, his art became the focus of a touring retrospective organized by New York’s Museum of American Folk Art. Liza Kirwin, a collector for the Smithsonian archives, called Finster “the ...

Finster Fest is no ordinary art festival. Yes, there will be an artist market, live music, a children’s activity area and food vendors. But it becomes clear when talking to both organizers and ...

Some art at Folk America, however, is not for sale. Larry Schlachter gently presents a painting in the shape of a shoe, the first of several Finster made in the 1990s.

Finster was also known for his three-acre Paradise Garden, which he described as a “folk art haven,” built in 1961 on filled swampland behind his home in Pennville in northwest Georgia.

Local fans of Howard Finster, the legendary Baptist preacher-turned-folk artist responsible for more than 46,000 works over a 25-year painting career, used to have to trek all the way to Georgia ...

Howard Finster, a Baptist preacher turned self-taught artist, was sometimes called "the grandfather of Southern Folk Art" or "the Andy Warhol of the South." ...