Swing (Jan-Dec 1948)

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YOU Can be a SUNDAY PAINTER The dead have no monopoly on art. It can he created by living Americans— you, for instance. by EDWARD LINDEMANN TIRED of the same old work and the same old hobbies? If you are, there's something so challenging to do, so fascinating to explore, that you'll forget you were ever tired. That's painting pictures. ''But I can't even draw a straight line!" you're undoubtedly screaming genteelly. To that we must reply, also genteelly, ''Neither can an artist — he uses a ruler." Or, to put it another way, art is something that has never been defined to anybody's satisfaction, and neither has an artist. Anyone can produce art of some kind. For instance, an old lady of 86 in Eagle Bridge, New York, has become world-famous for her "modern primi' tives," which sell at hundreds of dol' lars each. Her name is Grandma Moses. "I had arthritis and neuritis so bad that I could do but little work," says she, "but I had to keep busy to pass the time away. I tried worsted pictures, and then tried oil, and now I paint a great deal of the time." Then there's Bill Traylor, a former slave, who lives in Montgomery, Ak' bama. At 92 he is painting on the backs of old pieces of cardboard simple pictures of animals and human beings that critics have called "incredible" and have exhibited in Ala' bama. New York and elsewhere. His work is an unconscious re-creation of the cave drawings of prehistoric man — whose fine sense of form and sim' plification have delighted artists and public ever since the first " picture' gallery" cave was discovered. Then, of course, there was Gauguin, who, as a broker, used to paint on Sundays and did so well at it that he became one of the French impressionist masters. (He also threw up his job and family and ran off to the South Seas. This, however, will not be necessary for you.) And alongside wild man Gauguin was the meek and careful little French customs official, Rousseau, whose Sunday paintings hang in museums all over the world today. You can do at least some of what they did in those spare hours on Sundays and during the week. Exhibition of your work in museums is not guaranteed, but the exhibition of them on your living room wall, or maybe merely in the kitchen, is just as possible as you yourself make it. What's needed? Materials and some ideas. To try yourself out, you can start very simply and inexpensively. It isn't necessary to have an easel, palette and a do2;en brushes. Oil colors are not imperative. Pastel, for instance, is a good medium for ex'