After I had been studying at the Academy of Art in San Francisco for a few years, I let Ken know that would be returning to Sacramento for Christmas break. Ken invited me over to his house, suggesting that I bring my recent work so he could see how I was progressing. I brought over a couple portfolios of drawings and illustrations, as well as an armful of paintings on canvas, and laid them out on Ken’s living room floor. Oh, the look on his face! Ken was so disappointed and let me know it in no uncertain terms. We spent about 3 hours discussing everything that was wrong with my work. What had I been doing with my time?!? The truth is that I had been working very hard, drawing and painting every day, late into the nights. In the eyes of my classmates, I was making fine progress, but by Ken's standards, I was spinning my wheels and burning up lots of energy to go nowhere. Ken had studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco for all of 2 semesters, basically learned everything he needed to learn in that time, and proceeded to support himself by selling his paintings. He was flabbergasted that I was still struggling with painting technique after a couple of years. He just shook his head and looked terribly disappointed. I went home feeling very depressed.
Somehow, I managed to recover. Upon graduation from the Academy of Art, my drawings were winning awards and I was hired by Walt Disney Feature Animation. At that time, Ken said that my work had achieved a kind of “verve” and "soul", especially in the portraits. He seemed pleased when I told him that I put up images of his paintings around my desk at Disney to keep me inspired while working on animation.
Ken and I continued to correspond on and off for some years. Regrettably I lost touch due to moving from place to place and battling deadlines. But I treasure his letters, which were always handwritten, sometimes on a few pages of note paper, sometimes on the back of a postcard printed with one of his paintings (like the "Nevada City Classic" shown above). On the back of this particular postcard, he admonished me with this advice: “‘We musn’t concern ourselves with who is better than another, so much as who is honest’. We are indeed each unique and we should strive to express that which is nearest to our understanding… which is following our passion!” I have never forgotten this advice (although I regret that I have not always applied it in my life).
I will have some additional thoughts on Ken Potter and the California Style of watercolor painting in another post on this blog.
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