'Over the years Mr. Sudduth became a connoisseur of dirt; he liked to say that he could locate mud in 36 different shades. Once he became famous, people sent him dirt through the mail.
Ms. Crawley said.To expand his palette further, Mr. Sudduth coloured his work with an astonishing array of available ingredients, either by mixing them into the mud or rubbing them directly onto his wooden canvas. They included flour, coffee grounds, instant coffee, dye wrung from sodden red crepe paper, ground brick, ground charcoal, coloured chalk, crushed coal, turnip greens, flower petals, poke weed berries, ivy, soot, axle grease, elderberries, crushed green tree buds, boiled jimson weed, sap, walnut shells, burnt matchsticks, tobacco, egg yolk, grass and leftover house paint donated by neighbours.
The only drawback to these recipes was that some of the finished paintings were supremely attractive to mice, which ate holes in them. In later years, when advancing age made it hard for Mr. Sudduth collect mud, he switched to painting in acrylics. Obituary New York Times
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