By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
People make a living in all walks of life, and often no one notices those professions that fall outside the ordinary, everyday job. This is the case with two brothers, Jim and Clay Wainsott, who have spent most of their lives creating works of art for people to enjoy. Their works are on display at Gallery 506 in Elsmere through May 9.
When the two boys were growing up in Florence, there wasn’t much indication that they would grow up to be artists. Their parents were in advertising, and both boys agree that their parents could draw and would illustrate things for their job. But that’s it. They don’t recall being singled out in school for their artistic talent.
They attended Florence Elementary and Boone County High School and then looked to college, but Uncle Sam stepped into Clay’s life soon after high school to send him to Vietnam. Jim went to Northern Kentucky University.
“I drew a lot when I was a kid; I liked to draw a lot,’ said Jim. “But I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be an artist by high school. That was a choice I made early on.”
He said he really was not a fan of school academically, but he found that being in school afforded him the ability to encounter people who influenced his art. One person he remembered was Jimmy Suzuki.
Gathering influence from many different people gradually made him gravitate from drawing to painting.
“When I was young I used to carry a sketchbook with me a lot, but with time I didn’t do that as much anymore,” Jim said. “It wasn’t as if one day I was drawing and the next I was painting. It was a gradual thing–my art eventually evolved more into painting.”
Both brothers paint with acrylic paint.
Clay Wainscott went off to the army and spent some time in Oklahoma.
“Drawing isn’t something that you suddenly discover you can do,” he said. “To be an artist and to draw is something that takes a lot of practice. But when I got out of the army, I didn’t have a particular direction to go, so I went to the University of Kentucky and sampled classes in various departments, and I found that in art I got immediate feedback; when I had an intention, I could have a piece of paper and a pencil, and I could get an immediate result.”
Once Clay started painting, he looked for inspiration in the ordinary things that people see every day, but really don’t see.
“I like to portray things in my paintings that people take for granted,” he said. “Things that people see but don’t notice.”
Living in Lexington, he said he goes out and takes pictures of things that pique his interest and then later he goes through them and paints one of the pictures, with his own specific spin that transforms the object into one that viewers see and wonder why they didn’t notice that object. He said he doesn’t have a schedule; he paints when he wants to, and there is no specific time.
His brother Jim lives in Cincinnati.
Jim said he finds his inspiration in a lot of different things — in flowers, in landscapes, in buildings, and people’s faces–he doesn’t limit what he would find interesting enough to paint.
“I think it is all rooted in life experience,” he said. “I think that everything that is said about the reasons for making art, and the purpose of art has been exhausted in the sense. It’s really only an individual’s response. Inspiration is just, I mean, you take in life experience, and your work reflects some aspect of that. Basically what I paint is all rooted in common experience or reality. There is no one single thing I’m trying to tell people.”
He did acknowledge that creating his artwork is his way of communicating with the world, since he feels that he is mildly introverted, and he understands that people can get something out of seeing his work that he would not be able to foresee, but he said when he finishes a painting, he is done, and it is what it is.
He does have one piece that, if pressed, he would say has some sentimental value to him.
“Probably the one of a canine friend of mine,” he recalled. “It is a remembrance of him, he was a shepherd, and because of the qualities in the painting, I think it is my favorite. It is done almost in a 14th or 15th century profile. It’s kind of a celebration of my departed friends.”
Jim’s work is done in acrylic paints and colored pencils, where Clay’s work is predominantly acrylic.
Clay said he doesn’t think it is coincidental that both he and his brother are artists.
Jim said as children they really didn’t get along all the time, but that has softened as both are now in their eighties. Clay is the older brother, but only by about 18 months.
“I don’t think our mother ever really understood what we were doing,” Clay said, remembering. “There is no doubt a great gulf between being a commercial artist, doing work for pay, and having a salary, and being a fine artist and doing paintings that are personal expressions.”
Clay said he doesn’t have any plans to stop painting. He said when he hears somebody say that they really enjoy painting, he wonders if they are doing it right. Like his brother, Clay does his art in an effort to communicate. He doesn’t know if he and his art will be remembered into posterity, and he really isn’t concerned with that at all. He paints what he wants to, he is pleased with his work, and that’s it. It is then out of his hands.
And when it is over, it is over. Their work will live on, inspiring some people, and creating pleasure for others to view.
Their show, entitled Convergence runs until May 9. The show is at Gallery 506, belonging to Laura Sams, a lovely, well kept secret on 506 Ash Street in Elsmere.
The gallery features a spacious open area for displaying the artwork, and outside there is a beautiful garden that intensifies the entire artistic experience.
The show is free and worth seeing.