It’s All about Me
Folks have been encouraging me to have a website. Well, I do now. I’m not trying to sell anything: I’m just showing off. I know I’m just an old guy who paints, but I do need to make myself feel important occasionally. So this website is my effort to make myself feel important.
First I’ll tell you a little about myself. Yeah, it’s all about me.
From an early age I painted, not well and not very often, but enough to know that I was not talented. However I knew for sure that I could paint better than I could sing or play a musical instrument: there is not a bucket in the world large enough for me to carry a tune.
Art is something I’ve always thought was important. From an early age, I admired various artists, and my interest has gone from one artist to another over the years. I’ve had friends who were truly talented amateur artists. Whenever I’ve had the chance, I’ve visited art galleries and museums as well as professional artists. I’ve read a lot of biographies of artists, and contrary to the popular perception, most of them were normal people with great talents.
Also contrary to popular opinion, I’m a normal person; therefore, I can be an artist. Okay, so I lack talent; that has seldom been a show stopper for me and, for that matter, most of us. The foundation of my art is, in fact, my lack of talent; I had to find ways to overcome this handicap. Color is a mystery; draftsmanship without a ruler is a challenge.
I tried oils, but they smell bad and take too long to dry. I found acrylics: they have no odor, they dry quickly, and brush cleanup is easier. In other words, they fit my personality better. After a few days of working on a painting, my little attention span wants to move on.
I spent most of my adult life trying to teach English to high school students. This pretty well took all of my energy and time. Late in in my school life, I became the district librarian; I suddenly discovered I had some energy left over at the end of the day, not a lot but enough to apply somewhere else. I don’t farm, I’m a terrible golfer, so I was pretty limited in my choices of what to do with the leftover energy: I chose art.
I began to apply myself to art in a more earnest manner. I found ways to overcome my lack of talent.
As for subject matter, cats were handy. I like dogs too, but I didn’t have a dog. It’s hard to do a bad drawing of a cat. After producing well over 200 cat paintings, I finally felt the need to move on to other subjects.
One thing I never developed was a long-range plan: the number of paintings one can give to friends and family is limited.
Then one day the clouds parted and a little ray of sunshine fell on Somerville’s main block: an honest-to-God art gallery, Art C’s. Thank you, Lord.
My dear wife, Linda, approached Cathy Schuster and Cheryl Wooten, the co-owners of Art C’s, the local art gallery, about my art. I suspect Linda just wanted to empty the garage where I stored my completed paintings. At any rate, these two ladies, two very talented artists, seemed to think enough of my work to have a show in February 2008 (Cat, Cats and More Cats) and again in 2009 (Pinkerton’s People) and again in 2010 (Man’s and Woman’s Best Friend) a show I shared with the artist Jane Dubose. I’ve picked up a few other galleries who have been kind enough to try to sell my offerings as difficult as it is at this time.
Where You Can See My Stuff
Presently you can see paintings of mine at the following locations:
The Frame Gallery in Bryan: http://www.framegallerydowntown.com/
The Gallery at Round Top in Round Top: http://www.thegalleryatroundtop.com/
By the way, you can see more of my work at Fine Art America
( http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-pinkerton.html ) .
One more place you can see a few of my works is Magdigital (a gilcee printer)
http://www.magdigital.com/artindex.htm
The Amherst House: 713 West Buck, Caldwell (Contact Charlsa Wine at Charlsawine@yahoo.com)
The Hub in Temple, Texas ( http://thehubtemple.com/ )
I Ain’t the Only Show in Town
Not a great surprise, I’m not the only artist in our little town of Somerville, Texas (population 1704). Other artists living here are Tim Vanya ( http://www.twvanya.com/ ), an absolutely wonderful professional oil artist; Cathy Schuster, another great watercolorist, porcelain doll artist; Jean Curling, ( http://mysite.verizon.net/resw35yc/curlingbrushstrokes/index.html ) excellent oil painter; Dee Turner, renowned watercolorist and pastel artist; Betty Farmer, talented handpainted tile artist; and Emma Pace, age 14, gifted photographer. Another talented artist who lives near Somerville is Mary Scott ( http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/mary-scott.html ). Two wonderful potters, Stephen and Bonnie Todee, own Bluebonnet Potter and Craft Gallery ( http://bluebonnetpottery.com/index.html ) at 12341 LBJ Drive, Brenham (within three miles of Somerville).
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