The painting is absolutely quintessential Alice! This painting shows Alice herself, along with her dog Herman, in front of her house on Bookter Street in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. In the top left corder is an angel, a common motif in Alice’s works. The house was the original location of the Alice Moseley Museum until after Hurricane Katrina, when it was moved to the second floor of the historic L&N Train Depot across the street. Thankfully this work, and most others in the blue house, survived the storm with only a couple receiving some degree of damage.

Miss Alice had just signed the contract to buy the house at 214 Bookter St. As she and her son, Tim, were driving towards the beach, they saw an old man with his head in his hands, looking as though he had just lost his last friend in the world. Miss Alice, who felt she had just signed her life away, said plaintively, “I sure hole that’s not me in five years.” As soon as she had settled in, she sent a house painter to a local paint store and he came back with the bluest blue he had ever seen. This, in turn, led Miss Alice’s son Tim to coin the title “The House is Blue, But the Old Lady Ain’t.”

Having been featured in Southern Living Magazine, this is one of Miss Alice’s most well-known works. Being a former English teacher, this publication caused quite a stir among her former students who called her complaining that if they had used the word “ain’t” in a school paper she would have failed them.

According to Tim Moseley, Alice’s son:

In 1989, my mom decided she wanted to live in Bay St. Louis, and called Jerry Dixon, whom she had met when she did a one day art show in the Bay.

“Jerry this is Alice Moseley. I have decided that I want to move to Bay St. Louis.” Jerry said he was somewhat flustered that this 80-year-old woman was taking such a leap of faith. “But Alice, you don’t know anyone here,” Jerry intoned. Alice quickly responded, “I know you.” When my mom signed the contract on Halloween of that year, we left her “house to be” and drove down the beach. On the beach was an older man who looked like the world’s saddest person. Mom took one look at him and said, “I hope to heaven’s that’s not me in a couple of years.” Later, Mom painted her house a bright Wedgwood blue. Leaving her house one day, I drove by the spot where we had seen the old man and into my head popped, “The house is blue, but the old lady ain’t.” After strong initial resistance over the propriety of an eighth-grade English teacher saying “ain’t,” Mom relented and painted the “blue house.” She never offered it for sale, and the original painting hangs in the Museum. My mom had very few ‘blue’ days at 214 Bookter Street, and even though Mom made many friends in the Bay, Jerry Dixon always remained one of her most special ones.

— Alice Moseley - Her Life, Her Art, Her Legacy, page 29