Text by Michael Dumas

MOBILE, Ala. – Those who tune in to the Mobile Chamber’s monthly podcast may have spotted a splash of Mobile’s most iconic locations on the studio walls. Local artist Rianna Freeman Turner painted it specifically to showcase the local beauty. You may also spot a leprechaun if you look hard enough.

When Rianna was a child in Lucedale, Mississippi, she learned to be resourceful and creative at a young age. She embraced drawing and painting, and at 6 years of age won her first competition with a drawing of a birthday cake.

“They told me I won a blue ribbon, so in my mind I knew I must be an artist,” she said.

Now a professional painter, she’s inspired by the Gulf Coast’s diversity and color, which come to life in the subjects on her canvases.

“Someone once said I never met a color I didn’t like,” Turner said. “And I feel like the diversity of Mobile and the Gulf Coast in general lends itself to art.

“It’s hard to live here and not have a sense of creativity.”

Rianna has been the featured artist at Daphne’s annual Jubilee Festival of Arts and has won Best of Show at the prestigious Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival in Ocean Springs, Miss. While those accolades are points of pride for the mother of three, her art gives her a lifestyle that prioritizes time with her family.

“I’ve put my kids first, which gives me time in the studio with them, and I’m just working on perfecting my art.”

Painting for herself, for her patrons, and even alongside her children, brings Turner tremendous joy, which is palpable in her work.

“People tell me all the time, your art’s so happy, which then makes me even happier,” she said. “My ultimate purpose is to bring the happiness and joy that art brings me to somebody else — into their homes and into their lives.”