PAINTING IN THE DARK

by
Maryann Miller

 

That is literally what Jory Sherman of Pittsburg, Texas does. The renowned author, and soon to be renowned artist, is legally blind, although he says he is not totally in the dark. "Maybe just mentally," he jokes.

One hears about artists who overcome a variety of physical limitations to paint. Some paint with toes or with their lips because hands and arms don't work, but how does one paint when they can't see? For Jory, this creative expression transcends vision or lack thereof. "It comes from creative energy, so I don't feel limited by my lack of vision," he says.

Jory, pictured here starting a new canvas, explains that he always had a heightened visual sense when he was writing and thought of that process as painting with words. "I picture things clearly in my mind," he says. "And that image flows on the creative energy to the canvas."

Jory also has the assistance of Grahame Hopkins, a talented artist and instructor who lives in Winnsboro with his wife, Tracy. Jory started taking lessons from Grahame just a few months ago and credits the teacher with his success. "Grahame is a marvelous art teacher," he says. "He knows how to nurture the talent and bring out the best.

"Plus, he has been my eyes," Jory continues. "He helps me with details and guides my hand when it strays. One time he asked me if I wanted to put the skyline in a picture and I said, 'What skyline?'"

Always quick to toss out another joke, Jory has a good sense of humor and uses it to his advantage in coping with the loss of eyesight, which is significant. To be able to read this story, and anything else, on his computer he will use a magnifying glass that Sherlock Holmes would be proud of.

He also uses that magnifying glass to look at pictures that he might want to paint, as well as checking his own progress on a canvas.

Of his student, Grahame says he is impressed. In fact, sometimes he thinks Jory is pulling his leg about his vision limitations, "Until I see that he is off the mark on the picture. Then I know he really sees very little."

Grahame also says that at first he thought this would just be an experiment for Jory and he would get tired of it. "But he hasn't, and I'm proud of what he has accomplished. Sometimes I watch him working and he is like a cat with a canary."

Teaching is nothing new for Grahame. He gives private lessons, as well as holding classes at the Winnsboro Art Center (formerly TCCA) and he has been teaching in the After School Program at Memorial Middle School in Winnsboro for several years, most of that time as a volunteer.

Jory is not new to painting, either, just new to painting in the dark. He always had an easel in his writing space and says he would often take a break from a novel in progress and paint a little bit with oils. "Sometimes I just needed the break from writing," he says. "And wanted to explore another form of creative expression. But it wasn't until recently that I realized how much one feeds the other."

Through the years Jory has published over 300 books, thousands of articles and 500 short stories, and he continues to write and mentor other writers. His writing classes have been held at the Winnsboro Art Center, Northeast Texas Community College, and numerous writer's conferences.

Along that writing journey, he also completed a number of oil painting, most of which were lost in a fire some years ago. In fact, he thought all the paintings had been destroyed until his son mentioned that he had one. As Jory put it, "I looked at the picture and said, 'damn that's good.'"

Finding that picture resurrected Jory's interest in painting, and he happened to mention that to Sandra St. John, another talented artist in the area. Jory and his wife, Charlotte, have been friends with Bob and Sandra St. John for many years and were over at their place for lunch when Jory expressed his desire to paint again. "Right away Sandra went out to her studio and loaded me up with brushes and watercolors and canvases," Jory says.

Shortly after that, Jory contacted Grahame to start lessons. "I'd never had any formal training," he says. "I'd meet artists and get some tips from them, but nothing like what I am getting from Grahame. In addition to teaching me about colors and contrast and composition, he knows how to use things at hand to aid in the painting. For instance, when I wanted to do a skyline, he cut rectangles out of cardboard and taped them to the canvas. Then I painted over the cardboard. When it was removed I had the buildings outlined."

Jory paints primarily with a palette knife and has gradually moved to bigger and bigger canvases. He calls himself a primitive impressionist and says that way it doesn't matter that he can't paint the details.

His work, some of which is pictured here, is on exhibit at the Winnsboro Art Center for the next several weeks and most of the pieces are available for purchase. To find out more about his books and his writing career visit his Web site

One of Jory's latest books, Little Journeys, a collection of stories written in lyrical prose, is available at the Winnsboro Gallery, as are paintings by Sandra St. John.