A close-up, sunlit portrait shows a Black woman from the chest up beneath a canopy of green leaves set against a vivid, open blue sky. She has deep brown skin and long, center-parted black braids that cascade in thick ropes and softer curls over her shoulders and chest. Her eyes lower gently, focused downward while her expression feels quiet, reflective, and private. Warm orange-gold light floods her forehead, cheekbones, and nose, as if late-afternoon sun is pouring through leaves, creating a radiant glow on her face and a vertical flare of light at the center of her chest. She wears a rich green top, and a pale, textured wrap drapes loosely off her shoulders. Glitter specks are catch light like heat shimmer, pollen, or fine spray in summer air. The mixed materials make the scene feel tactile so light doesn’t just illuminate, but lands, clings, and sparkles. Chase Williamson is a Knoxville-based painter and MFA candidate at the University of Tennessee, whose work centers Black womanhood and marginalized identity through paint and fabric, shaped by her Middle Tennessee upbringing. Around the time this work entered the 28th Biennial Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Exhibition, she was building national visibility through juried museum and regional exhibitions while also deepening her professional footprint through curatorial and residency experiences. “Bathed Again by Southern Suns” reads as both portrait and offering with “southern suns” naming a specific regional light (and a history) while “bathed again” suggests renewal, return, and self-reclamation. The glitter and fabric don’t merely decorate. They materialize atmosphere and memory, turning radiance into substance. Her downward gaze becomes a boundary as much as a mood and a choice to be seen on her own terms. Within Black expression and identity, the painting’s impact is its insistence on softness as strength and Black womanhood rendered luminous, grounded in place, and held with care.
“Bathed Again by Southern Suns” by Chase Williamson (American) - Oil, glitter, and fabric on canvas / c. 2023-2025 - African American Museum of Dallas (Texas) #WomenInArt #WomenArtists #WomensArt #WomanArtist #ChaseWilliamson #artText #art #arte #BlackArt #AAMDallas #AfricanAmericanMuseumofDallas
