STORYTELLING

A couple of years ago, someone reported that when the judges gathered to select the final paintings for the annual American Watercolor Society Show, they determined not to include narrative work in the show. (Narrative work would be a painting that tells a story?) When the results were in, a painting that was totally narrative won the competition... just shows that it's hard to turn away from a really good story.

Joe Boyd is a master storyteller. He can paint pictures in your mind by weaving words together with both humor and impact. For the next three weeks, Joe will be weaving together a story he wrote and is now producing as a movie --- check it out here or here. He undoubtedly ranks up there with my dad as one of my favorite storytellers, and our four grand kids even got the chance a couple of weeks ago to hear a couple of his stories.

This 'sketch' of Joe, done while he was spinning another story or two last Sunday, is what I like to do when I listen. Maybe it's that I listen better if I'm drawing or doodling, so I'm seldom without a pencil, or in this case, a felt tip pen.

Artists' sketchbooks ALWAYS impress me, partially because of the diligence and discipline that the artists have who make them. My sketch books are many - and none are ever worth showing to anyone. They have notes, scribbles, thoughts that make almost no sense, drawings that are half done, blind contour drawings that are funny, phone numbers, websites, lists, as well as many sketches of eyeballs, lips, chairs, ears, feet, shoes, noses, and hands, etc. But not one of my sketch books looks like the beautiful works of art that I see others do.

When I was sketching Joe last Sunday, I realized my sketchbook is whatever I have in front of me to draw on. I'll never have a pristine, exquisite sketchbook, not ever. I toss most of my drawings because they were done for a moment, for a reason that's long past. But I liked this one of Joe. It reminds me of his stories and the impact they've had on my life.

The moment is what it's about when I'm sketching, the moment of being lost in that line, that shape, that texture, that detail. Just in case I feel like drawing, there'll be a small sketch book and pencil packed with me when Honey drives me to the hospital tomorrow morning for knee surgery. Maybe sitting in a hospital bed for a couple of days doped up on a lot of pain medication will result in some great drawings!

I'm thinking that everything will go well in surgery and hoping everything goes super for Joe and his cast of actors. By the way, I think he plays an Amish gambler in the movie. Go figure???

ANOTHER BLACK AND WHITE ARCHIVED PAINTING

A trip to northern Indiana lead us to plenty of rural Amish areas. A sunny day with some deep shadows of great shapes resulted in a lot of picture taking time.

I love to connect shapes in a painting that really are separate, and it was easy to do here with all the darks. No actual black was used because I wanted to capture what I felt was the 'color' of the area. Various colors were charged together to establish the strong darks that read as black. This painting is about nine years old, but I still enjoy looking at it because of all the contrasts and colors.

Any color that looks really dark in your palette wells can be used in combination with others to make a good dark. The trick is to let the water in the paint do the work of mixing, (rather than mixing it all in the palette) and let little gravity do the blending. As soon as the brush starts stirring things up, it can get real ugly. Make the paint very, very dark but use enough water to allow the paint to flow into other wet paint on the paper. Enjoy the spontaneity of it all. It's like magic.

"AMISH WHEELS" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 21 x 14"