Bernstein, Stair & McAdams has a long tradition of supporting the Knoxville arts community that began with our Founders and continues today. Our attorneys proudly serve on the boards of local arts organizations and volunteer their time in support of Knoxville’s thriving arts community.
Since the Firm’s inception over 60 years ago, we have been fortunate to acquire several works by local artists which we are honored to display and will be sharing in a series of posts, as a testament to our commitment to local arts, and our belief that at Bernstein, Stair & McAdams, “the Practice of Law is an Art”.
Visitors of the Firm will not fail to notice this 75 ¼” x 60 ¼” oil on canvas landscape hanging prominently on the left side of the lobby. Winter Trees was painted by Joanna Higgs-Ross in 1965, and depicts a copse of tall, bare trees sheltering a white house. Joanna Higgs-Ross was born in Nashville and is associated with the “Knoxville Seven”, a group of progressive artists connected to the University of Tennessee which included Richard Clarke, Robert Birdwell, C. Kermit Ewing, Walter H. Stevens and Carl Sublett. She majored in art at UT Knoxville, and received a B.F.A. in 1956 and received her M.F.A. from University of Illinois in Urbana in 1961. She taught art at Lambuth College in Jackson, TN, from 1961-1982. Works by Joanna Higgs-Ross have been displayed in the Tennessee State Museum, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and the Memphis Museum of Art, and we are honored to display this piece in our collection.
