I didn't quite understand the meaning of "mouth artist" handwritten on the back of this hand-painted postcard when I found it, or recognize the name of Nyla G. Thompson of Austin, TX who signed it, but a little googling led me the fabulous folk/outsider collector Jim Linderman's Dull Tool Dim Bulb blog, where I learned a bunch about her, including that she did, as a polio survivor, indeed paint by holding a paintbrush in her mouth. [here's a link] As Linderman notes, citing a website by Thompson relative Annette Patterson, the artist was fairly known (active 1940s-60s), including receiving letters from Franklin Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson. There are postcard reproductions of her paintings out there, which the artist produced and sold, but this is an original oil painting, and quite an excellent one I think--representative of her work (which also included flowers and animals) but as bold and confident and expressive as any I've seen and calling to my mind everyone from to Joseph Yoakum to Philip Guston!
3 1/2" x 5 1/2" and in excellent condition, c. 1950s, signed on reverse.
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