Hemingway and Edgerton
haul their gear back to
the house after wrapping
up a painting session.
“I was afraid of oils, but I bought some oils and I did the first oil painting. And it felt like magic.
It felt like the difference between homemade cake and bought cake — smooth and nice,” he says.
Hemingway has become a regular in Edgerton’s annual “good ol’ boy” getaways. Edgerton talks about
the first time he invited him on a fishing trip with a bunch of his childhood friends. While everyone else
fished, Hemingway asked to be dropped off on an island to paint.
“If you’re with the good old boys and you say you’re gonna paint a painting, it can get you in trouble
really quickly,” Edgerton laughs. “But Chip didn’t even blink. He just picked up his board and said,
‘y’all drop me off here,’ and he did the painting. And all the good old boys were crazy about him.”
“Everybody loved it. And it kind of gave me some courage to be different as a painter,” Edgerton says.
Edgerton adds, “He’s really an inspiration that way because he’s always painting.”
Painting has become Hemingway’s version of a hunt.
“I grew up hunting and fishing and I kind of evolved into this painter, where I go sit in nature, very
much the same way you do when you’re hunting and fishing, where you’re sitting there observing everything
but instead of the hunting and all, I do paintings. And I feel like the painting is my game — my catch,”
Hemingway says.
Recently, they went hog hunting.
“It was an incredible trip. We went to south Georgia to hunt quail and wild boar, and, of course,
there was Chip with his billfold and box,” laughs Edgerton.
Edgerton says he doesn’t think he’d still be painting if it hadn’t been for Hemingway.
“I think I would have gone to something else. I think with painting, I was really lucky to meet Chip
when I did. Besides the friendship, I wouldn’t have kept doing it, but I got hooked and it was so much
easier to get hooked with him there.”
Hemingway says, “I tell people, I’ve been teaching Clyde about painting, and we go out painting, but
everything else in life, I’ve been learning from him.”
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WBM june 2013
Hemingway
says, “I
tell people,
I’ve been
teaching
Clyde about
painting,
and we go
out paint-ing,
but
everything
else in life,
I’ve been
learning
from him.”
DETAIL FROM A PAINTING BY CLYDE EDGERTON