Nellie Meadows

Who is Nellie Meadows?

Nellie Meadows was an artist from Clay City, Kentucky whose painting "Kentucky the Great State" became the state's official piece during the U.S. bicentennial.

Meadows was born in 1915, and spent most of her life in Clay City, Kentucky. In the 1960s, she began painting birds and wildflowers that were indigenous to her area. She was part of the Kentucky Heritage Artists program, and traveled throughout the state presenting programs on painting, at numerous schools, libraries and other locations. She distributed her prints, and various note cards at a number of state parks and other venues. She was presented with a plaque in 1970 for her contributions to Kentucky's Public Libraries.

In the 1980s, she was commissioned by the Kidney Foundation of Central Kentucky, to paint a series of Kentucky winter and holiday scenes to be used as Christmas cards and prints, which earned tens of thousands of dollars for the foundation.