Still Life with Horse Skull, March 1958, Leland Payton, Watercolor, 17 by 23
In 1958, I was a senior at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri. One Sunday afternoon, I commandeered the dining room table and arranged some artifacts from my found-object collection and a few household items and painted this in one sitting.
Later Edwin Dickinson questioned my use of crosshatching in the Lookdown picture I sold him for a quarter and the other Florida watercolors. I did this still life before I started using a finishing overlay of pen lines to define and control the tone and texture of spaces.
Early in December 2011, I got a phone call about this painting, which, like the Lookdown, I had lost track of. It was from a man who once lived in Sedalia. After discussing what was in the picture (which I thought was pretty evident), I asked him to send me a photo of it. This is his email of December 10, 2011:
Leland,
I`m sorry it took so long to send you the pictures of your painting. I spent last week in Oklahoma with my 2 boys. I am not the greatest at this computer stuff, If your mom would of only had a computer coarse when I was in her class, but since they were not invented yet then I am on my own.
I guess my main questions are, is this one of your paintings? did you go to art school with Sharon? and did you paint it while you were at art school or before. From her paintings it looks like one of you had some artistic influence on the other. I received this painting from my sister after Sharon passed away and just about anyone that stops by always comments on it. They all like it of coarse. They always ask who the artist is so I googled your name and got your number. The info on the internet mentioned books with other artwork in them but I have looked in several bookstores and not located them. My next stop will be Amazon.com.
When we talked I think I said that my parents still live in the house next to Mr. Hall`s old house and when we were growing up it was the neighborhood hang out. I appreciate You Taking the time to talk with me on the phone and any info on your artwork would be great.
The objects in the still life are an inventory of my interests as a teenager. (1) Horse skull—picked up on a fishing trip to Spring Fork Creek. (2) Balsa wood rack to mount butterflies and insects. (3) Swallowtail butterfly on an insect pin. (4) Salad oil jar. (5) Two bottles of Pelican ink. (6) Box turtle shell. (7) Chunk of hematite. Pieces of this red iron-rich mineral were scattered through Indian sites around Sedalia. May have been used as a paint source? (8) Two bottles of Armagnac brandy. My father made friends with a French hotelier during World War II. For a decade after the war, we exchanged Christmas gifts. They usually sent a local liqueur. And yes, my parents let me sample it.
I replied, December 11, 2011:
The central figure in the painting is a horse skull. On the left are two wine bottles. On the upper right is a balsa wood board I mounted butterflies with. Below that is a bottle. Below that are two Pelican Ink bottles. Below them is a turtle shell. Pretty typical still life.
The wife likes the pictures and would be happy to buy it from you if you would be interested. We don’t have very many pictures from my high school days.
He responded on December 17:
I wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk with me a couple of weeks ago. I remember your mothers classes in grade school and she talked about you often. That`s how I made the conection between you and your mother. I can`t remember what I ate yesterday, but I remember your mom`s classes in grade school, go figure. My intention for calling you was to find out a little bit about the painting and you. I wasn’t even thinking of selling the painting. It goes with my decore, and as I said before anyone that see`s it always admires it. I know the painting probably means more to you and your wife than it does to me, but after having it for several years I am somewhat attatched to it.
If you are interested in buying the painting please let me know what you have in mind. The painting is dated and sighned March 1958 and I was born in August 1958, that makes us both 54 years old this coming year (ouch). I took 15 pictures with my camera but had trouble sending them, I think this computer stuff is just a fad.
While researching Leland on the internet I saw some of your artwork and I discovered you are an author, and photographer, you are very talented. Maybe you would consider trading the painting for other artwork or photographs, we can certainly talk about that if that`s even an option.
Again I want to say thank you for taking the time to talk with me and that I did not call you with the intention of finding out what the painting is worth, or to even to sell it. You are more than welcome to call … and we can talk about it. If you get up this way sometime (Warransburg) we could meet and you could see your art work. If you have trouble reaching me on my cell you can also call me at Westlake Hardware.
We agreed on a combination of my photographs and cash and I got my still life back. Sharon Patten’s mother, Lucy, bought the painting from me during the several years Sharon and I dated. Sharon didn’t take up art until she was out of college I learned from the internet. Her canvases were huge, thickly painted abstractions which were well received by the art world. In 1988 she got a Guggenheim Fellowship. Sedalia’s Daum Museum has eleven and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City owns five. Our influence on each other was minimal esthetically (and any other way) to answer the man’s question. Smoking two packs a day proved fatal. She died, I learned, in 1995 at age 52.