Q & A – Questions and Artists – Tony Couch

The Peninsula Pulse has teamed up with the Door County Art League (DCAL) to reprint portions of interviews conducted by Randy Rasmussen, DCAL Executive Member, with various artists. Featured in this issue of the Pulse is Tony Couch. To sign up for DCAL’s monthly newsletter or for more information visit http://www.doorcountyartleague.org.

Tony Couch

Tony Couch is the author WATERCOLOR:  You Can Do It!, published by North Light in 1987. The book, now in its sixth printing, has become the publisher’s all-time, best-selling art book and is the textbook in several college art departments. He now conducts five-day watercolor painting seminars in the United States and abroad. His Web site is http://www.tonycouch.com.

Randy Rasmussen (RR):  Mr. Couch, when and how did you develop your love of art?

Tony Couch (TC):  I had always liked to draw, ever since I can remember. I almost flunked the fourth grade, I remember, because I spent too much time drawing cartoons and not enough studying. By high school I had decided I would be a famous comic strip cartoonist like Al Capp (Lil’ Abner) or Milt Caniff (Terry & the Pirates and Steve Canyon), and drew caricatures of the senior class for the high school yearbook.

Not knowing how to become a “famous cartoonist” but knowing I needed more training, I entered the only art school I could afford, which was the U of Tampa (FL) to major in art. I graduated four years later but learned little useful about art.

As it turned out, the Korean War had started the summer before and upon graduation, being a single male, I had a choice of joining one of the services or being drafted – so I joined the Navy.

In the Navy I was a cartoonist for a base paper, did a few sports cartoons for the San Diego Union, a comic strip for NAVY TIMES, and went to flight school. I was released from active duty about five years later with a GI Bill, which would pay for any school I wanted to attend. Still pursing my dream of being a famous cartoonist without knowing how to go about it, I thought the answer was more schooling, and I picked Pratt Institute in New York.

The first thing I found out is this GI Bill I had only paid for tuition and books – not room or board. So to make it work I enrolled in the night school and worked during the day as a cartoonist and illustrator – first for Associated Press, then as a freelancer. The next thing I learned is there was no cartoonist school at Pratt, so I enrolled in the closest thing to it:  illustration.

Eventually in the illustration course we students attended one semester each in several mediums as an introduction to them so that we might select one in which to work. One was watercolor, which I had never seen before, and which was being taught by one Edgar A. Whitney, who during the day was an art director at McCann Erickson Ad Agency in Manhattan.

I was immediately taken to the medium and the instructor, who made design (also new to me) come to life while he demonstrated watercolor.

At the same time I was learning something else new on the street during the day:  being an artist is a good way to starve to death, and I was qualified to apply as a pilot at an airline since I had learned to fly in the Navy. Since flying promised a more financially secure arrangement, I chucked the books and went to work for an airline.

However, I always remembered that watercolor and the instructor, so after a few years I broke out my painting equipment again and tried my hand at it. It was a disaster and I knew I needed help. So I looked up my old instructor Ed Whitney, who by now had resigned at McCann Erickson and was touring the country teaching watercolor workshops. I joined the first workshop I could get to and could see this was something I could do while flying for the airline.

So I went back to Ed’s workshops at least once a year for several years, painting steadily in between. Eventually I also did a few workshops and upon retiring from the airline did the workshops full-time.

RR:  As your art skills were developing, what artist influenced you? How is their influence reflected in your current work?

TC:  The first artists to influence me were cartoonists Al Capp and Milt Caniff (remember in the beginning I was going to be a cartoonist), then besides Ed Whitney there was Robert E. Wood, Milford Zorne and Zoltan Szabo – all of whose workshops I attended. I’ve also read – have been influenced by – books by Rex Brandt, John Pike and Ted Kautzky. I hope you can see some evidence of this in my paintings.

RR:  Was your development as an artist incremental, or was there “a moment” when you felt like “I’ve got it!”?

TC:  My development as an artist has been “incremental” – as I imagine it has been for every artist – or any skill, for that matter. No “epiphanies,” just slow, plodding work. “Tweaking,” another artist calls it. I’m still learning, and will until the day they put me away in a pine box. It’s why many say “art is not a destination – rather it’s a ‘journey.’”

RR:  Your book, You Can Do It! is in my opinion, one of the two best instructional books on watercolor. (The other is Tony van Hassalt’s Water Color Fix It.) It might be the best art instruction book I have seen. When you wrote the book did you know you had a “blockbuster?”

TC:  First many thanks for the kind words for the book, WATERCOLOR, You Can Do It! As far as I know it’s still North Light’s all time best-selling art book. No, I had no idea it was anything exceptional as I wrote it; I was concentrating upon putting in everything I knew about the subject, as clearly and simply as possible. I had seen other books that were mere showcases of the artist’s work or exercises in complex vocabulary and I was determined that mine wasn’t going to be one of those. I wanted it to be a useful, straight-forward, easily understood manual.

Incidentally, it’s now out of print, as are the other two books I’ve written, but I found out from Tony van Hasselt I can get it reprinted. So it’s now in my own “second” reprinting, and I’ve got a garage full of them that I sell at near the original price.

RR:  Do you think, based on your many years of teaching, artists are born, or made with instruction, or a combination?

TC:  There is a word often used when describing an artist, called “talent.” It doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists in this area is aptitude. All of us have various aptitudes in various areas – some of it in “art” or “painting.”

It doesn’t mean one with greater aptitude for art will be the greater artist; only that this artist will pick up the skill faster than one with less aptitude. What makes the difference is determination. The artist with less aptitude will always pass the one with greater aptitude if the one with less works longer and harder than the one with more.

I think great artists – like great golfers, pianists or scientists – are not born that way, but taught.

RR:  You do seminars in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; have you ever been to Door County, the “Cape Cod” of the Midwest?

TC:  I’ve often heard of “Door County,” but have never been there.

Since retiring from his career in chiropractic medicine, Randy Rasmussen has pursued his art with unmitigated passion. In addition to his role as Executive Member in charge of exhibits with the Door County Art League, Rasmussen paints three times a week, almost entirely plein air, and is a charter member of the Peninsula Plein Air Painters. His work can be seen at http://www.penpap.com.