26th Annual Christmas Home Tour in Holly Springs

HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) - Randy Hayes won’t do much to get his antebellum home ready for the 26th Annual Christmas Home Tour in Holly Springs.

He may hang a couple of wreaths on the front doors and maybe light a few candles. Otherwise, he will let the beauty of the home, and his artwork, speak for themselves.

“I see this house as a work of art,” said Hayes, 70. “I feel a responsibility to let people see the house whether they’re interested in my art or not.”

The house is Herndon, the oldest two-story brick home in Marshall County, built in 1845 with an addition in 1853.

“The house was built in two parts,” Hayes said. “The first two-thirds of the house were built and then a few years later they made an addition that balanced it out in Federal Style. That symmetry is more typical of Southern fashion. But the inside is more Greek Revival.”

Herndon is one of four houses that will be on tour Saturday, Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. The other three are Burton Place (1848), Hugh Craft House (1851) and Magnolias (1852).

Other historic properties on the tour include the Church of the Yellow Fever Martyrs, Chalmers Institute, and the Marshall County Historical Museum.

This is the second year Hayes has opened his home for the Christmas tour, which benefits the museum.

“The biggest compliment I got last year was from someone who said, ’I don’t know whether to look at the artwork or the house,’ which is exactly how I hope people feel when they come here,” he said.

Hayes was born and raised in Clinton, although he lived in Tupelo from 1960 to 1962 and graduated from Tupelo High School. He studied art at Rhodes College and at the Memphis College of Art.

“I had a motorcycle in college and I’d stop and rest in Holly Springs on the way to my parents’ house in Tupelo,” he said. “So I already loved the architecture here. Buying this house seemed like something that could just work out.”

Hayes lived in Seattle almost 40 years and had his art studio there. He bought Herndon in May 2013 and moved to Holly Springs the following month. The home has become a showcase for his unique painted photographs.

“I call it an exhibition space, rather than a gallery,” he said. “I’m not set up for selling, but to show people my work.”

Downstairs, the rooms all have heart pine floors, deep crown molding and 14-foot ceilings. There are no window treatments and very few pieces of furniture.

“The Greek Revival woodwork is very spare,” he said, “handsome but minimal. I don’t see it so much as a beautiful house as a handsome house.”

Photographs have always played a role in Hayes’ artwork.

“I always painted from photographs, ever since college,” he said. “I always used them as a source. Twenty-five years ago, I started painting on photographs. It took me five years to work the bugs out. I didn’t have any model to follow so I had to figure it out as I went along.”

His pieces range in size from 8×24 inches to 2×8 feet and he does some 3-D work.

“I take almost all the photographs myself, although I do use a few vintage photographs,” Hayes said. “Everything I do is based on travel since the 1980s and Mississippi is part of that travel. I just treated the state as though it were another country. Then I go back to my studio and create art.”

Hayes said his favorite piece he’s created is usually the one he just finished.

“Then you look at it for a couple of hours and start thinking about the next one.”

——-

If you go:

- What: 26th Annual Christmas Home Tour in Holly Springs.

- When: Dec. 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Dec. 7, 1 to 4 p.m.

- Cost: Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 after Dec. 1.

- Information: Call 662-252-3669 or visit https://www.marshallcountymuseum.com

___

Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, https://djournal.com