1986: Henry Watson Carves a Slice of History
The early career of the Maringouin sculpture artist since described as a "Living Legend"
This story was selected by the Country Roads magazine editorial team as the representative piece for 1986 in the archival project "40 Stories From 40 Years"—celebrating the magazine's 40th anniversary on stands. Click here to read more stories from the project.
“Colors give art its mood, but carving gives art its dimension,” says Maringouin artist Henry Watson. “You cannot touch with your eyes but you can see with your hands.”
The expressive hands of Henry Watson have such a feel for his art and for his heritage that they can turn any old weather-beaten cypress board into a finely executed, three-dimensional history lesson.
Watson’s art is called bas relief, which is carving or sculpture in which the figures project slightly from the background. It is a form of art especially suited to his favorite subjects, nostalgic senses of the Old South, oak-shaded cabins along the bayou, ancient plantation homes, steamboats and weather faces.
He uses as his base only old cypress, boards from old barns or slave cabins wearing proudly the graped patina of age. This old cypress is softer and hence easier to carve than boards of more recent vintage.
After cleaning the boards and stripping them of nails, Watson cuts them to size, doing everything by hand. With a set of chisels and a mallet, he scoops out only that area of each plank which is to be carved, leaving the rest of the unplaned wood undisturbed to form a natural frame around the focal point.
The artist’s three-dimensional sculptures involve distinct foregrounds, middle grounds and backgrounds, with each level carved separately in distinct steps. After drawing his scene, he first carves away all but the foreground objects: then redraws everything in the other dimensions and carves out those objects appearing in the middle ground; then repeats the process for the background objects. This gives his work a multidimensional effect rarely achievable on the flat surfaces of a painting.
[Read about another beloved Louisiana sculptor, Angela Gregory, in this story from 2022 here.]
Specialized tools help Watson to get into tight corners and to carve intricate details on such things as hanging moss and picket fences. He then paints his carvings with acrylics to bring them to life, often making frames for the artwork out of additional old cypress boards.
A regular at area craft fairs and art festivals, Watson exhibits his work in several area shops and art galleries as well. While he will do commission renditions of modern-day structures or re-create vanished ones from the buyer's photographs or remembered descriptions, he specializes in historical scenes.
“I got hooked on these historical scenes,” he explains, “by using all this old lumber from old plantations and other historic sites. I fell in love with these old places. That’s what people are looking for, what’s falling down and needs to be preserved because it won’t be seen again. This is something to remember it by.”
So don’t tear down that old barn without giving Henry Watson a chance to salvage the weather planks and turn them into memorable history lessons.
Additional information on Henry Watson’s bas relief carvings may be obtained from the artist himself at P.O. Box 618, Maringouin, LA 70757; telephone (504) 625-2602. Prices for his work range from $60 on up, but are generally around $1.50 per square inch.