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Edgerton,
a successful author and UNCW creative writing professor, has
published ten novels, one memoir and his new book of advice,
“Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers.” He had dabbled in painting,
but didn’t really bloom until Hemingway schooled him.
They also share their work via email.
“We have a lot of email correspondence
about the paintings. I send him my paintings,
he sends me his, and we both comment. ...
That’s a lot of fun,” Hemingway says.
Nature is his main inspiration.
“What I do is a ‘journey into nature’
through art and architecture,” Hemingway
says. “I’ve been very fortunate that a lot of
my buildings I’ve done are nature-oriented
and strive to create an appreciation of
nature. And that’s what my art is.”
Surfing first inspired him.
“I’d sit out there on my surfboard and
look at the colors in nature, the ocean, the
sky. It’s just mind-boggling. Waves are
coming in, you’re riding on them, and it
was the kind of thing I wanted to show.
I was trying to recreate that experience of
nature that I thought was so beautiful,”
Hemingway says.
Once he learned color theory, he gravitated
toward an impressionistic, en plein air style.
“I like the spontaneity of it all, because I
work on these architecture projects that take
three or four years sometimes. So having
something I can go out and do in one hour
and it’s done — it’s like, wow! Okay, that’s
it. I really like that tradeoff to my day job.”
Edgerton began painting in 2007.
“I was doing some really bad acrylic
paintings and I felt good about them, which
I think is a secret of any artist. The early bad
stuff you do, if you really know how bad it
is, you’ll quit. But if you don’t know how
bad it is, if you’re kind of infatuated with
what you’re doing, you won’t. It happened
to me in writing and it happened to me in
painting.”
Paintings by Clyde Edgerton, from top: Orton Plantation; Cows, a gift for
his wife; Fort Fisher.