About Ramona
Her Story
The name Mammaw.art says something important about both the artist and the woman behind the paintings.
To generations of her family, Ramona Davidson is simply and lovingly known as Mammaw.
Her Work
Painting the World She Remembers
Ramona began painting in the late 1970s, after her children were grown. What started with ceramic underglazes and tole painting eventually led her to oil painting, the medium she came to love most.
Her subjects are rarely grand or distant. They are the familiar things of everyday life: barns, creeks, ponds, woods, flowers, birds, old buckets, birdhouses, antique chairs, and objects that feel as though they have always belonged in a Kentucky home.
Many of her paintings begin with a photograph, a magazine clipping, or an image brought to her by a friend or family member. But what ends up on the canvas is more than a copy. She pays close attention to color, light, shadows, reflections, and the small details that make a familiar scene feel alive.
In that way, her work has become a kind of visual memory. She paints places and objects that feel known, useful, weathered, beautiful, and worth remembering.
Still Learning
A Lifelong Student
Ramona has never considered learning something that ends.
She took lessons from local artist Elsie Hall and continued teaching herself through books and painting programs on Kentucky Educational Television. Artist and instructor Jerry Yarnell became one of her favorites to watch and learn from.
Even after decades of painting, she continued experimenting. At age 96, she tried watercolor for the first time and painted a bear. It was another reminder of something that has defined her approach to art for years: there is always something new to learn.
She may tell you that drawing is not her greatest strength. What interests her most is color, the way light falls across a scene, how shadows change an object, and how the right mixture of paint can make something feel real. She remains, in the truest sense, a lifelong student.
A Special Work
The Shaker Chair
One painting holds a particularly special place in Ramona's body of work.
In 2016, at age 86, she painted a still life centered around a weathered Shaker-style chair. Beside it are a wooden bucket filled with branches and red berries, a blue birdhouse, and a ceramic crock.
Ramona considers the painting one of her finest, and her family agrees.
Like much of her work, its beauty comes from ordinary things observed carefully. A chair, a bucket, a birdhouse. Familiar objects given permanence through paint.
Life Beyond Art
More Than a Painter
Painting is only one of the ways Ramona has always kept her hands and mind busy.
She has sewn, quilted, crocheted, gardened, cooked, read, and cared for a home and family. Even after recovering from a broken hip, she worked hard through physical therapy and kept moving forward.
Painting remains part of that same spirit. During the winter months, she can spend hours in her basement studio. She has said that painting keeps her mind active, gives her something to work toward, and lifts her spirits.
The Name
Why Mammaw.art
This collection is about more than preserving paintings.
It is about preserving the way Ramona sees the world.
Her paintings hold pieces of Kentucky life, familiar rooms, old objects, flowers in bloom, birds on branches, quiet water, weathered barns, and the kinds of scenes that can disappear before anyone realizes how much they meant.
And behind all of those paintings is the woman generations of her family lovingly call Mammaw. That is why this site is called Mammaw.art.
It is a place for her paintings, her memories, and the work of a lifelong student who is still finding beauty in the world around her.