Joe “The Artist” Paints & Sketches

Edgar A. Whitney[i] in his “Complete Guide To Watercolor Painting”[ii] demonstrated his humanness, in addition to the skills as a writer (albeit in the vernacular of the mid-20^th century America) and watercolorist. In just two pages he gave instructions peppered with opinions, without excuse, and yet he also demonstrated his ability to correct the impressions he did not intend in his first book.For example, in explaining the virtues of watercolors, he uses a very good analogy, and then out of the blue, something one would not expect:            “(2) Lovelier precipitations, the truth involved here . . . substances obeying their own laws do beautiful thing[iii] . . .  Look at a Rorschach ink blot. This is a truth to which Jackson Pollack[iv] added nothing.  He poured enamel or paint on the floor and framed the area that pleased him most. “  Obviously this stops the reader in his tracks.  Having been a young man in that era, I remember that school of thought in my trips to the Greenwich Village Outdoor Art Show (New York City) and my feelings about those “avant-garde” paintings.Now to contrast this with his apology just 2 paragraphs later:           “In the first edition of my book on a page in this chapter, expressing enthusiasm for aquarelle with my penchant for dramatics, I contrived a very stupid word sequence that read as an indictment of gouache, casein, and tempera. I did not mean it the way it read. I greatly admire the work of many men painting in these media … “  He then names men of his era and explains that he has two works from these men in his private collection.

How many people today in the public view would do this???

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