There is a small boy walking hand in hand with his father
down a tattered dock. He is somewhat afraid of falling through the gaps between
the dock boards but he is confident that daddy will take care of him and not
let that happen. Dawn hasn’t broken; they’re going fishing and need bait. The
dock and bait house are weather beaten and everything appears in gray scale.
The little boy peers between the dock boards and sees the shimmering surface of
the water below. He sees the reflections on the water; fluid, swirling, ever-changing.
He doesn’t understand what he sees but he is mesmerized. This was my first
memory.
The small boy grows, learns how to swim and joins a swim
team. Countless hours over the next fifteen years are filled with swim practice
and swimming competitions. As he grows he is literally immersed in water.
Summers are spent at the pool or beach. Swimming, boating, beach-combing, fishing,
sailing. Water is ever present. He serves as a life guard during high school
summers. Also, as he grows he becomes a proficient ship modeler. He learns hull
shapes, sail rigs and rigging. During college summers, he works a tugboat and
oil barge on the Mississippi River; first as a deckhand, then as a tankerman.
He learns about life on a working boat: the people, the places, the boats, the
waterways. During college, he joins a competitive sailboat racing crew.
Weekends are spent tacking, jibing, reaching and running. This was my childhood
and adolescence.
During high school and college, the young man takes art
classes. After his first year of college, his father gives him a watercolor paint
set, pad of paper and a surfing magazine. The magazine is filled with images of
the ocean. He begins painting water with water. Waves, surfers, boats, beaches,
shorebirds. A watercolorist is born.
I am at ease in, on or near the water. My paintings reveal
this peaceful easy feeling. The surface of water is my inspiration: smooth or
rough, colorful or gray, fluid, swirling, ever-changing, always reflecting. Each
of my paintings begins with a reservoir of water. Watercolor painting is a
natural extension, progression and expression of this fluid inspiration.
I paint water with water for the joy of painting, I am a
watercolorist.
Odie K. Tucker, Jr.
