Local artist Cindy Barrow is showing a collection of her artwork featuring historic churches from all over Polk County.

The collection is comprised of four water color paintings and a graphite drawing of five historic churches, all over 100 years old, from around Polk County. The collection is on display at the Welcome Center on Main Street in Cedartown.

Barrow said that she decided to paint the churches after being commissioned to do two antebellum houses.

“I was commissioned to do two pre-civil war homes and I just got interested in the historical part of it,” Barrow said. “And then I thought 'why not do five old churches in Polk County?' We rode all over the county trying to find the right ones.”

Barrow said she choose to paint the Rockmart Presbyterian Church because she takes art classes there. She said that she chose to paint the Van Wert Methodist Church because of its rich history.

“I just picked the ones I liked,” Barrow said, commenting that their colors, settings and history all took part in her selections.

“We would just ride around and see the way the light and the colors were. They're all a bit different,” Barrow said.

Barrow mentioned that she wanted to get churches from both the Rockmart and Cedartown sides of Polk County. She also said that she worked on the collection for about a year.

The graphite drawing is of the Etna Baptist Church which was destroyed in a tornado in 1993. Barrow used a photo, taken around the year 1900, that she borrowed from the Historical Society to draw the picture. She mentioned that she used a magnifying glass to get detail from the antique photograph.

Barrow grew up in Laurel, Miss. She attended the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. She moved to Georgia in 1971. She worked for 28 years for the Department of Family and Children Services before her retirement; which is when she said she started to focus on art.

"I always did a little bit, but I didn't really get into it until five years ago," Barrow said.

Barrow plans to make prints and notecards from her depictions of the churches. She mentioned that people have already shown interest in cards featuring the artwork.

The collection will be on display at the Cedartown Welcome Center on Main Street until Oct. 8. The Welcome Center is open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.