Artist, writer, photographer, and animal lover, Pearce W. Hammond is a gentle Renaissance man who loves the low country. Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Hammond spent a lot of time on the coastal waters of the low country which provided him with a never ending supply of artistic inspiration. He began creating art at an early age and is a self-taught artist who draws on his life experiences in his coastal environment to depict life in the low country and scenes from Gullah culture and peaceful times gone by. Hammond uses Acrylics, Pen and Ink and other media, including crushed oyster shells, to create his unique and colorful art. He attributes his putting brush to canvas to his famed Savannah-born Uncle, Johnny Mercer, who was famous for his prolific song writing career and winner of four Academy Awards. Mercer was also a talented painter who produced many works while on vacation. One Christmas, when Mercer was visiting family in Savannah, a young Hammond decided to show his Uncle Johnny some of his work. According to Hammond, Mercer remarked that he was "pretty good at it," which inspired him to pursue the craft. Hammond and Mercer also had the same interest in subject matter. An out-of-print book titled 'Our Huckleberry Friend', contains a collection of letters, notes and song lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and also includes one of his paintings, a watercolor of three African Americans traveling down a dirt road on an umbrella-covered wagon. The picture is signed by Mercer and dated 1947. Hammond paints his view of the low country from his studio at "Halftide", the home he shares with his wife, Anne, on the tidal waters of the Chechessee River in Okatie, South Carolina. “I think one's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes and my love of the low country has always inspired me and I try to create art which creates a feeling or mood. Art should make you feel something and if I can give someone a moment of escape from the busy everyday world through my work, that’s important to me. I also hope that my work brings attention to all of the natural beauty of the low country and gives one a sense of what life has been like for many generations. Too often we take these things for granted and I want to do what I can to help to slow down man’s tragic mistakes in polluting the coastal waters, abusing nature, and destroying for future generations those things we have taken for granted. If I have anything to offer, it is my emotional contact with the place where I live and the paintings I do."