The exhibition catalogue The South on Paper: Line, Color and Light explores forty-four southern artists and eighty of their works. James C. Kelly discusses the variations between southern and other American regional art. He also elaborates on each artist's era, background, and stylistic preferences. Complementing Kelly's essay, Estill Curtis Pennington provides an overview of the cultural, political, and social context of the works.

A native of Kentucky, Estill Curtis Pennington is the author of several articles and exhibition catalogs dealing with southern art. After holding positions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, Pennington now lives in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

James C. Kelly is chief curator of the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. He is the author of the book From Settlement to Statehood and three catalogs including Landscapes and Genre Painting in Tennessee, 1810–1985. He has contributed, as well, to many journals.