Out of the Scraps (An Old Post Revisited)

For my first blog post, I wanted to repost a story I did a few years ago about my dad - Joseph Ray Tysor. He passed away at the Randolph Hospice House on January 28, 2024 after a short but aggressive bout with metastatic lung cancer.

It was not an easy end to 2023, nor has it been a smooth 2024 so far. I put my shop on hold while I spent time taking care of him and making sure to have long conversations about life, love, food, family memories... and, of course, art.

Dad was my partner in all things art, and he helped me to get BlondeSighted Art up and running. Many of his paintings and sketches are still in my shop - he wanted me to continue making them available to the public.

So please enjoy this story about how dad got his start in watercolor painting.

(Miss you, Pops)

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The other day, while I was over at Pops’ place, looking at some of his new projects, I discovered an old watercolor painting, hidden back among some old scraps. I pulled it out and asked him who did it.

Come to find out, it was the very first watercolor painting he had ever done.

It was 1966 – around the time I was born. That would have made him about 24 years old. He had majored in art at Greensboro College, but painting in oils was what he had focused on while a student. Watercolor painting didn’t become an interest until a few years after college.

I watched him as he held the paper up to the window light, critiquing his work – how he had “put lots of effort into the shadows and highlights” on the brass pitcher and that his painting technique was now much more effortless and free-flowing. I had to agree with his assessment.

You have to start somewhere to get to where you want to be. Funny thing is, I think he’s still on the journey, and that’s an awesome thing – watching him play with new techniques and seeing the sparkle in his almost-eighty-year-old eyes is a gift.

I took the painting and carefully placed it in his portfolio, letting him know that since it had been “rediscovered”, it would be kept out of the scraps and shared for a long, long time to come.

I’d like to start by sharing it with you.