The moment you stepped inside the Tudor-style home off Woodward Way in Atlanta, the “beautiful smell” of oil paints would fill your nostrils. It was there, several decades ago, L. Comer Jennings, Jr., found his purpose as an artist painting portraits.
Jennings died peacefully in his sleep at age 89 at Brighton Gardens assisted-living facility in Dunwoody on March 6.
He painted portraits of many influential Atlanta-area residents such as former President Jimmy Carter, Bob Woodruff and Chet Atkins. He also was skilled at portraits of children and grandchildren.
“He would do his portraits right in his living room of his magnificent house off Peachtree Battle,” recalls Paige Brown, a friend.
She remembered the “beautiful smell” of oil paints when she entered his home to have him paint a portrait of her two children. “It was the largest portrait he’d ever done,” she added.
Brown said Jennings was “such a cool guy” there was just no way she could not be his friend. Brown said she adored Jennings.
During portraits, Jennings’ sons said he would talk to his subjects about his life.
“He would chat people up and tell them not to move, but also to listen to him or entertain him,” Benjamin Jennings said. Comer Jennings III added that he had a talent for making people feel comfortable and good about themselves while he painted them.
“I’m an artist, and Comer was a magnificent artist,” Brown said. “Very few artists can be a socialite and an artist as well, a true artist. That’s why there are so many artist representatives in this world. Most artists are shy and let their personality come out in their artwork, but Comer could do both.”
Brown said he was like a person of two worlds: the life of the party, an artist, but also a savvy businessman who negotiated his deals with his clients directly, never using a broker.
Jennings “knew about branding,” according to his sons, and the importance of networking and marketing. They described their father walking into cocktail parties where everyone knew his name, knew of his work as a portrait artist and wanted or had one of his paintings.
“He knew and loved it,” Benjamin Jennings said. Comer III added, ”He was an incredible character. Very funny, smart, stylish.”
The house on Woodland Way “really was a lovely place to be,” Benjamin Jennings said. “It was a euphoric place to grow up as a kid.”
Before his years as an artist, Jennings spent time in the 1960s working in advertising — on accounts such as Coca Cola — during the “Mad Men-era,” his sons said.
Benjamin said he thinks his dad was trying to please his father by going into “a respectable business,” because being an artist wasn’t “macho” enough for the wealthy, Southern and rural town where Jennings grew up. It was “like something out of a Faulkner novel,” Jennings III said.
Comer was born in Eufaula, Ala., to Legare Comer Jennings and Kate Beebe Roberts Jennings on Oct. 29, 1926. He attended Culver Military Academy, Princeton University and the University of North Carolina and earned his Bachelor of arts degree at Emory University.
When his father died, Jennings began pursuing his dreams of big-city glamour through a career in art, painting portraits.
Jennings also taught part time and served as a board member for the Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta Ballet, the High Museum, and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. “He was on the board of all of them,” Jennings III said. “To watch those things grow and change really meant a lot to him.”
Jennings III said, “He loved the brand of Atlanta itself” and wanted it to be important nationally. He sold the idea to everyone he could.
A service of celebration will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 435 Peachtree Rd., in Atlanta on Thursday, March 17 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to the FACT Relief Foundation: www.factrelief.org.
Jennings was married for 11 years to Ann Elizabeth May and is survived by two sons; Legare Comer Jennings III, married to Donna Reynolds Jennings; and Benjamin May Jennings; and five grandsons: James (Jack) May Jennings, Legare Comer Jennings IV, William Reynolds Jennings, Samuel Legare Jennings and Benjamin May Jennings, Jr.
