Husband and wife team John Hopkins and Susan Lince are more than artists. They are generous, energetic, community-oriented folk who donate an amazing amount of time to many activities for which we can be grateful. The Sower Gallery is but one of them.
And here is some of John’s art as displayed at the gallery. Look below to find the three items separated out, followed by the back story.
Back Story: Half a Century! A span of 50 years from painting to painting!
It seems amazing when I stop to think about it, but art, especially landscape painting, has been a constant theme of my life – and, still it continues to this day. From my earliest memories, experiences across the globe have woven for me a fascination with mountains, trees, sky, and the grand beauty of nature into a myriad of drawings, paintings, and photographs.
From 1956 through 1959, my family was with my father, a professional military man, in Japan. By the summer of 1958, he decided it was time for my sister and me to climb Mt. Fuji with him. The trip to the top was full of visual “hits” that collected in my consciousness. At age 10, I already had a year and a half of training as an oil painter. Upon return to my “paints”, I painted from memory one of the scenes from our adventure that stood out for me.
Fast Forward 50 years…………..
With my wife, Susan, and my mother, we were on a one-week family outing to Ruidoso, New Mexico to check in with a gallery there that was showing some of my paintings. It was high summer and Sierra Blanca and the surrounding landscape were beautiful and inviting. Of course, I had to do a bit of plein-aire painting up on “the mountain” while we were there. We found a nice roadside turnout that had a great view over the Mescalero Apache Reservation so I set up to paint under the blue sky.
I was well occupied, but my two ladies were getting a bit tired of just watching me paint. After a while, they decided to take off together and do a little sightseeing. There I was in my ragged painting outfit replete with ripped jacket and paint filled pants, all by myself at the side of the road halfway up Sierra Blanca. As the cars full of tourists drove by, a few stopped to see what I was doing. To my surprise, some of them put money into my paint-box! After a few hours of painting, I had eight dollars plus a little change to show for it.
- R. Lince-Hopkins
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