John R. Stokes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John R. Stokes, the Atlanta-based artist, was born in 1915 to a prosperous Georgia family in Dawson, Georgia, a town founded by his grandfather. Showing early talent he attended art school but the financial impact of the Depression on his family forced him to leave after his freshman year to join the US Post Office.
After service as an infantry lieutenant in World War II, he continued working in Federal law enforcement as a Post Office inspector, until a severe heart attack in the 1960s forced him to retire, simultaneously giving him the opportunity to return to painting full-time.
He quickly achieved local success as a portrait painter, particularly of portraits of elders of the Primitive Baptist Church, to which he remained devoted throughout his life. While his portraits may have been more commercially successful, his best work is probably his studies of rural Georgia life in the period when the Civil Rights Act was bringing far-reaching changes to local society.
Winner of many awards, he was for several years honorary President of the Atlanta Artists Society, until his death from a further severe heart attack in 1987, just short of his 72nd birthday.
