DESCRIPTION AND METHOD OF WORK

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With a hint of Grandma Moses, a nod to Henri Matisse and a passion for all things Victorian, Caywood creates enigmatic, richly colored interior scenes that recall the best of Southern writers Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor and Kate Chopin. Her medium is oil on canvas or paper, and she works small: Her recent paintings never exceed 22 inches by 30 inches. She shuns sketching, models or pre-planning for a spur-of-the-moment fervor on an unstretched canvas that begins with a line, window, person, piece of furniture or fireplace. In true Southern Gothic form, Caywood's paintings thrive on a sense of unraveled mystery. The artist admits even she does not know what has happened or what is about to take place in her works' narratives. The possible story lines shimmering between the taut, simplistically rendered humans are endless: jealousies, infidelities, loss and heartache abound. Caywood juxtaposes such heavy themes with thickly applied and brilliant colors, mixing patterns on walls, fabrics, rugs and clothing that are as intriguing as they are jarring. "It's a challenge to orchestrate the rhythms and tensions and spaces," she says.

FAVORITE SUBJECT MATTER

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Small, private worlds are Caywood's universe. Within the walls of elaborate, richly furnished rooms, she explores the isolation and anguish of daily life. But the scenes in her paintings always are make-believe. "When I finish, I look at my work just like the audience does," she says. "There is no story line in my head. I ask other people what they see in the painting, and that's where I get the title."

PAINTING STYLE

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"I come from the school of the intimist," Caywood says, quickly simplifying the elements of Impressionism, German Expressionism and Edouard Vuillard-style intimacy radiating from her paintings. "I take an emotional, intuitive approach to the canvas."

FIRST ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

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At age 14, Caywood vacationed with her family in Ireland's County Leitrim. "I was young and bored," she recalls, "so I went into a village and bought watercolors." She spent the rest of the trip perched beside a stream, painting silhouettes of black Labrador retrievers. "I pinned the pictures on the curtains in the room where we were staying. I remember thinking they weren't too bad, but nobody else even mentioned them."

BIGGEST BREAK

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Caywood's 1989 "Overtones" show at Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans set the stage for her future successes. "Carol was the first to take me in," she explains. "That was the beginning of art as my professional career."

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON

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Caywood describes fellow artist Paul Penczner as a "giant of a teacher." Though she has a wealth of education from Memphis State University, Rhodes College and Webster College, her private year-long study with Penczner was incomparable. "He taught me more in one year than all the academics in my life," she says. She recalls a party at Penczner's home, during which dozens of aspiring artists vied for his attention. "He stepped away from the throngs and walked over to me," she says. "He told me to keep painting. That's when I recognized I had talent."

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

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Cambridge Art Association National Prize Show, 1999. Art South Biennial, 1985.