1995 - 19.75" x 27.25" - Watercolor, Arches Aquarelle watercolor paper
The figure on the left of this painting originated in a doodle I did during a college world religions course lecture, although it wasn’t wearing bark and feathers in that doodle, and I’m not sure if the lecture had anything to do with the doodle that slipped out.
That doodle was later the subject of a college painting; still not with a bark robe, though. It was that lone figure with tin cans floating around in the background. That painting was titled after my professor’s comment about it: “I don’t like it, but I sure as hell respect it.”
Much later, my friend Sylvia Root Tester and I took watercolor and color pencil classes at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. A botanist would come in and tell us about a plant specimen; an art teacher would coach on art media techniques; and at the end of class, we took a plant clipping home to paint or draw. We were focused on the botanical for subject matter, and didn’t that botanical influence slip right into this strange painting? Cool.
This painting is in the collection of N. Eugene and Sylvia Root Tester