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Painting with one piece of paper a month.
By Frederick Corrigan
“PAINTING WITH ONE PIECE OF PAPER A MONTH”
The year was 1946 and I was being raised by my grandparents in a small town in northern N.H. My grandparents were 80 and 60 years old, we didn’t have electricity, running water or inside plumbing. What is a 10 year old boy to do to entertain himself? I loved horses and although we lived on a 75 acre farm the only horses we had were work horses. But I could dream and fantasize about beautiful black horses and me in my cowboy hat, chaps and boots. Now I wanted to make my dreams come to life and I wanted to draw pictures of horses. However, this created another situation that I couldn’t control. We lived 5 miles from town and we didn’t have an automobile and I didn’t have any drawing paper (whatever that was). I discussed my plight with my grandmother, who knew of my love for horses, but also knew that we were poor and couldn’t afford to buy paper to draw on. Hanging on the kitchen wall was my salvation---the Steven’s Insurance Company’s calendar. (this company is still in business today).The 15” by 15”pages for each month were stapled to the face of the calendar and as each month finished I could tear off that month and use the back of the page to do my drawings. Drawings led to painting with water colors and this led to further frustration, because I couldn’t erase my picture and start over as I could with my drawings. The months dragged on, winter came and went and each month I could do one drawing that I would then watercolor.
My fate changed when my aunt took a liking to my works of art and offered to take me to the town that was 15 miles away. Here she would buy me a set of oil paints and a canvas if I would paint a picture for her. I was thrilled to be able to try oil painting as we had an artist who lived down the road and I used to sit and watch him hours on end. I had no formal training, but I had been painting watercolors for over two years. Now what do I paint? It was a nice summer day, so I walked down into the field, looked back at the farmhouse, barn, and carriage sheds and thought, “my aunt will like a picture of the house that she grew up in”. I had one canvas, so I had to take my time and try to do a good job. The end result was a picture of the farm, which my grandfather had built, where my aunt and her 5 sisters and 1 brother grew up, and where no one had ever taken a picture of all of the related buildings on the family farm. My aunt loved this picture and kept it in her home until at the age of 97, when she went into a nursing home she gave it back to me.
I will give this picture to the historical society of that town, as the barn and other out buildings have been torn down and this picture is the only record of that piece of my family history. I still enjoy painting and over the years I have created a number of art pieces for my family and friends.
You never know what one piece of paper can turn into unless you do something with it.
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Contributor's Note
Painted when I was 12 years old, in northern New Hampshire.
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Having to take your time and be careful since you only had one piece of paper a month was possibly a blessing in disguise. What a great way to learn the discipline needed for painting.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you for visiting and for your comments, Franklyn. There are many lessons that can be learned from being poor, responsibility, discipline and respect are three that I still try to practice.
Thanks for making me revisit this intel and the memories.
Best wishes,
Frederick
I Tweeted the link to this Intel this morning.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks for being a friend, Franklyn, I really appreciate it. I'm still trying to get our business facebook page going. We both had to go back to work, so time is in short supply.
Best to you,
Frederick
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