Way back in 1977, I was working in a Cannery Row art gallery for a lovely man named Les Anderson. He was an incredibly talented watercolor artist for whom I’d worked, for many years. We had a very successful artist who he’d shown named Anne Rugh who, at that time, started painting primitives, as they were called. She had been even more successful doing that, under the name, Mrs. “B”.
My style of painting up until then, had gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. My boss and friend Les suggested I try the primitives. So I did and when I showed this to him, he told me to do a few more and he’d hang then in the gallery. I couldn’t believe my ears. Not only was he an incredible artist, he had an array of artists in that gallery that was amazing when I look back on it. That my work would be hung with them, for me, was unbelievable.
I did it too, and he took them to his framer and got them framed for me, and hung them in his gallery. This was the first one I did. It never sold. But much to my amazement, others did. I was absolutely amazed that I could sell my art. In the end, I pulled this one from the gallery to keep, to remind me of how it started. It hangs in my studio.
Early on, when I had talked about being an artist, everyone would indulgently ask, “Yes, that’s nice, but what do you want to do to make a living?” I knew the odds of actually making a living at it were fairly slim. But, almost thirty-five years later, that is exactly what I did do. An erratic one at best, but almost thirteen hundred paintings painted and most sold, I am still at it. And I’m not done yet.
