This week my friend Julian Despaigne came to visit me with a group of children from the village. Every year he organizes a kind of summer school, now children are on holiday. They do amazing things. Visits to the village monuments where he explains and tells stories from the history, treasure hunting through the streets and much more. Last week they visited the village blacksmith, and now they have paid me a visit in my studio. I told them something about portrait painting and mixing paint. In a five-minute demo I made a watercolour of the portrait of Julian. The children were spellbound.
It reminded me of a beautiful story that the famous graphic designer and illustrator Milton Glaser told in an interview with his friend and fellow artist James McMullan.
“There was a very specific moment when I was about four or five years old. My cousin came in with a paper bag and said, ” You want to see a pigeon?” I thought he had one in the bag, but he didn´t. Right before my eyes, he just drew it on the paper bag. At that moment the idea of inventing an image – it was the first time it had ever occurred to me that you could invent something and give it life – became clear. That was the moment of decision for me, and I never deviated from that. The only thing I ever wanted to do was something involved with making images.”
I myself as a child had a similar experience that made me decide that I would become an artist. (I will talk about that occurrence next week). If the children who visited me will go into art I do not know. Perhaps, who knows…
By the way, Julian is an amazing guy! Don´t forget to visit his website.