Wet Paint History

A Thirty-first Anniversary

 

Thirty-one years ago this September, I was thinking about how to convince  my New York artist friends to get on the train and to come paint with me along the Hudson.

 

It came to me that they might be lured by a box lunch and a chance to sell a painting. So I arranged to do a fund-raising event to benefit the Garrison Art Center, in Garrison, New York. This small hamlet had been the set for the movie Hello, Dolly! and had a substantial number of supporters of the arts.

 

I recruited artists, a number from New York, quite a few from Garrison and the surrounding towns, including a celebrity or two. The deal was that for $10 (as I remember) the artists got some coffee and doughnuts on arrival, and they took away a box lunch.

I managed to cajole some publicity, particularly from the newspaper in Peekskill, New York. Thus was born the first Artists on Location/Wet Paint event.



1981 Poster, courtesy of Janelle Cleary

Although I'm somewhat appalled at the illustration I provided for the poster, and at my willingness to sign it in pencil, it was great to receive the photo of the poster from an old friend, Janelle Cleary.

The event was a great success, and it has continued in Garrison for all the intervening years, spawning other events all across the country and, for all I know, around the world.

If anyone has any information about a wet paint event that precedes this one, I should be interested to hear. Otherwise, it may be time to call Ripley's.

Cheers, Donald