Hemingway,
an architect by profession, is a partner in Bowman Murray Hemingway which
emerged from Ballard McKim and Sawyer. He has designed three North Carolina
Aquariums, the Oregon Inlet Lifesaving Station, Jennette’s Pier and is currently
designing the Audubon Center at Pine Island on the northern Outer Banks.
Soon after that lunch, out at
Masonboro Island with their
families, they ran into each
other. Hemingway was paint-ing
— he is known to carry
his supplies everywhere.
“He always has his billfold and his paint-ing
stuff,” Edgerton says. “He might not
have anything else,” he jokes, “but he’s
going to have those.”
Hemingway, whose paintings are sold in
local galleries, is drawn to paint whatever is
in front of him.
“I love doing paintings at parties and of
people playing music, capturing the essence
of something you couldn’t necessarily take a
photograph of,” Hemingway says.
Edgerton, who says he was “privately
painting,” began observing Hemingway’s
technique on Masonboro.
“I started realizing so many things just
by watching him that day and later on,
whenever we were at a party or something, I
could watch over his shoulder. Then I got up
enough nerve to show him my awful stuff,
and he was very patient with it,” he says.
Today, the two often paint together,
swapping advice and stories, as well as
plenty of laughs.
“One of the things I could immediately
feel was a lot of commonalities about where
we’re from,” Edgerton says. “I always feel
comfortable around Chip. I can see some-thing
happening and look at him and know
that he thinks it’s funny and know we’re
both gonna laugh — a lot!”
Their kids play together, and their families
have cookouts where the dads paint in the
backyard and play songs they have written.
Paintings by Chip Hemingway, from top: Captain Charlie’s Station, Bald Head
Island; Masonboro Moonrise; Clyde Edgerton painting in his backyard.
68
WBM june 2013