Local artist · Folk art · Dancing chickens
Ernest Lee
“I do paint from my heart, not from pictures.”
Ernest Lee is better known around Columbia as "The Chicken Man," and his dancing chickens are the reason why. Bright, funky and full of motion, they've become one of the most recognizable sights in Midlands folk art. He also paints dogs, cats, flamingos, famous faces and rural South Carolina scenes, in acrylic on canvas and salvaged wood.
An Edgefield native, Ernest has been drawing since he was five and painting since he was twelve, and he studied at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art and the Rose Hill Art Center. He doesn't work from photos or reference pictures. Everything comes straight from memory and imagination.
For years, Columbia knew him from his street-corner gallery, run out of his van and trailer. His work has since been shown at the South Carolina State Museum and the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C.
Nothing online here just yet.
New pieces hit the floor all week, and not everything makes it online. Come see what's in the store, or call us to ask about something specific.