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If Big Al knew you and he had a fire going you were welcome. If he didn't know you and you had a 30 pack you would probably be welcome too. I enjoyed sitting around his fire and doing art work and many occasions. On this occasion I decided to paint the house next door. The fire lit up the pastel paper on my easel and I went to work on it. I enjoyed listening to my friends drinking and laughing while I worked. At one point I heard Al talking about chess. "I didn't know you played chess," I said. "Maybe we could play some time." "Sure," Al says..."do you want to play by white people's rules or Indian rules?" We never did play chess. I had a feeling when you sacrificed a piece in Indian chess it was going to be painful. I wasn't going there.

Arthur Barnes is a artist who works in a variety of mediums including ink, watercolor, pastels and oils. He prefers to work directly from life and his favorite subjects are landscapes with an emphasis on nocturnes and scenes of the Erie Canal. Arthur has had little formal training but was fortunate to study a year under Juanita Greene Parks in 1982. She had studied under Reginald Marsh and Robert Brackman. Brackman was a student of Ashcan artist/ teacher Robert Henri. Since that time, Arthur has been on a consistent course of self-training in art with an emphasis on learning through experience much like the Ashcan artists. "You learn to draw. . .by drawing," his teacher often recited. Artists Statement on Nocturnes "Half of our...