By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
A book recently published by the Birmingham Historical Society chronicles a Mountain Brook artist’s half-century love affair with the Birmingham metro area.
Released in late November, “Bob Moody’s Birmingham–A City in Watercolor” features 107 watercolor paintings of iconic buildings and scenes created by the former graphic designer, architect, NASA artist and Mountain Brook City Council member.
Moody said he painted many of the watercolors featured in the book as part of the work of the architectural firm he founded in 1974, Moody and Associates, which was headquartered in the building that today is the home of Highlands Bar and Grill.
But the 83-year-old Boaz native said his love of Birmingham goes back further than that.
“When I was 3 years old, I came to Birmingham for the first time to have my tonsils taken out,” he said. “I didn’t get to call this my home until I was 35, but I already had an emotional attachment to the community.”
Moody said that attachment only grew through his work with John Lauriello, principal of Southpace Properties. The duo spearheaded the downtown revitalization movement long before it was cool.
“I worked with John to take historic buildings and restore them, and we’ve worked on more than 40 downtown buildings together over the last 35 years,” he said.
Moody said he’s been involved with the Birmingham Historical Society for longer than he’s been working with Lauriello to preserve Birmingham’s rich architectural heritage.
“Fortunately, I’ve been able to do the things I really love to do and that I’m passionate about,” Moody said. “I guess I have inadvertently become a historian through those things that mean a lot to me.”
Moody’s affection for Birmingham is evident on every page of the new book, said Marjorie White, director of the Birmingham Historical Society.
“Through a decades-long romance with our city, Bob has come to know buildings personally, as if they were beings with feelings and flair,” White said. “The result of his talent meeting the classic nature of Birmingham is a book that will surely be passed down through generations to come. It’s that special.”
The idea for the book was born out of a conversation between White and Moody a couple of years ago, Moody said.
“Marjorie and Jim White were over one Sunday afternoon, and Marjorie knew that I had been saving slides and scans of my watercolors for the last 50 years, and I half-jokingly told her I would give her all the images and she could do a book for the Birmingham Historical Society,” Moody said. “The hard work of figuring out the order and which ones to include was all done by Marjorie and her committee. It’s been a fun project.”
This is not Moody’s first book of watercolor art. He and his wife, Rebecca, collaborated on a book featuring Alabama churches and followed that up with “The Church Triumphant,” a book on English churches.
“The Church Triumphant” found a royal audience when Moody was asked personally to present it to Queen Elizabeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the 50th celebration of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust at St. Bartholomew’s Church in 2003.
The new book is printed on Japanese art paper. Its cover features a painting Moody created from what he saw standing behind Vulcan and peering out over the city.
The subjects in the book range from a 1967 view of Terminal Station to Sloss Furnaces and Morris Avenue’s Peanut Depot. The Lyric Theatre, 16th Street Baptist Church, Oak Hill Cemetery, English Village and Mountain Brook’s Old Mill are just a handful of the iconic places captured in Moody’s watercolors.
“Photographs of our buildings are one thing — Bob Moody’s treatments are another,” White said. “He paints skillfully with watercolors, yes, but the extra ingredient is the love he feels for each site. They are whispers of the relationship he’s had with Birmingham since he first visited in the 1940s – a relationship that, if anything, has grown even stronger since that first flirtation.”
Moody said he’s happy that his work will help the Birmingham Historical Society’s efforts to preserve the city he loves.
“An interesting part of this is that John (Lauriello) got some friends together to pay for the (publishing) of the book so that the proceeds can go to the historical society,” Moody said.
The book is available for $35 at Gus Mayer, the Birmingham Public Library and online at amazon.com. Copies will be available for purchase at a book signing event at Little Hardware in Mountain Brook at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 12. Books can also be purchased at the Birmingham Historical Society’s website at bhistorical.org.
An exhibition of 65 of Moody’s paintings of the Birmingham area, including watercolors of Homewood, Mountain Brook, Forest Park, Redmont and Highland Avenue, runs through Jan. 4 at the Birmingham Public Library, 2020 Park Place. Admission is free.
