Finding a Home Amongst Art Crossing: The Legacy of a Wildlife Artist

Larry Seymour at Art Crossing in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

In a small shop along the Reedy River hang images of lions, hyenas, and zebras. An older gentleman with white hair, piercing blue eyes, and a Citadel alumni shirt sits at a workbench with paintbrushes and an unfinished sketch.

The images hanging on the walls around him may appear to be photographs, but they are hyper-realistic watercolor paintings.

Larry Seymour opened his art gallery in the Art Crossing of Riverside in Greenville, South Carolina in 2007. But it took him over fifty years to reach this point of pursuing a full-time art career.

Born in 1947, Seymour’s journey as an artist began as a young boy sitting in a church pew in Easley, South Carolina. 

“My mother kept me quiet in church on Sundays by writing a number and telling me to make a face out of that number,” recalled Seymour. What began as a simple distraction became a lifelong passion.

Seymour was self-taught. He learned by looking at a picture and practicing over and over again until he could figure out how to draw it.

“Back in the old days when I started, you couldn’t look up videos on Youtube or anything like that,” stated Seymour.

In fourth grade, he won first place at the Pickens County Art Competition with a crayon drawing of Dale the chipmunk from the cartoon “Chip An’ Dale”. His success led him to send a sketch of President Kennedy to the White House in 1961, receiving a letter of thanks in return. 

Seymour continued to sketch portraits throughout high school, but found it difficult to capture people’s personalities. He turned to painting animals instead, giving them the personality of his choice.

When it came time to choose a career path, Seymour’s parents dissuaded him from pursuing art. He enrolled at The Citadel university with plans to be a neurosurgeon.

Seymour never stopped creating even as he studied biology and anatomy. He found that his studies improved his paintings because he learned the proper placement for bones and muscles.

Seymour graduated in 1969 and realized he no longer desired to pursue medicine. He decided to become a science teacher and ended up teaching for 33 years.

“There’s not many weeks go by that one of my students doesn’t come see me,” Seymour said proudly. 

Once Seymour retired from teaching, he had the chance to open his gallery in a part of Greenville that was not always so welcoming.

“This area has changed a lot in the past 25 years,” said Seymour. “It used to be a dump. There was trash everywhere, the river smelled, homeless people on the bridge. It was awful.”

Seymour's collection of hyper-realistic watercolors.

Seymour had the opportunity to travel to Kenya twice to photograph the unique wildlife and some people in the villages. But only a few years after opening his gallery, Seymour began experiencing significant health problems.

“I’ve had open heart surgery twice in the last twelve years,” said Seymour. “I don’t want to go somewhere and get caught in a hospital if something were to happen.”

Still he continues to paint. With all of the pictures he has taken in the past, he has plenty of material to continue painting the animals he loves. Even though Seymour has only had a gallery displaying his artwork for a small portion of his life, he is proud of the legacy he has created. 

Yet one of the pieces he is most proud of is markedly different. A two-dimensional painting of a gray elephant against a green background is prominently displayed behind his chair.

“I have eight grandchildren, and my youngest one is in first grade,” Seymour shared with a soft smile. “And this is what he gave me for his birthday.”

One of Seymour's most-prized pieces of artwork—his grandson's painting of an elephant.