‘Seeing Your World in Watercolor’

By Thomas P. Caldwell

Larry Frates, artist-in-residence at Laconia’s Belknap Mill, has been teaching art to all ages since the 1970s, and now is venturing into new territory with a book-and-video project that aims to make the essentials of watercolor painting even more accessible.

The new book, Art To You With Larry: Seeing Your World In Watercolor, grew out of a collaboration between Larry, Chris Beyer, a writer and English teacher in Laconia, the Belknap Mill, and book publisher Kathy Waldron. Kathy’s company, Give a Salute, had published the book, Socks, The Belknap Mill Christmas Elf, based on the stuffed elf doll that appears in the Belknap Mill’s social media postings leading up to Christmas Eve. Beyer wrote the children’s book, using the elf to tell the history of the former textile mill-turned-museum, and Larry provided the illustrations.

Having seen Larry’s work in that book, Kathy suggested that he consider sharing his knowledge of art in a book. “I said, ‘Okay, let’s see what we can do,’” Larry recalled. “I had to sit down and sort of sift through my brain and figure out the most important parts of watercolor that I’ve been talking to my students about in class.”

Kathy encouraged him to “just start writing” and, as he did, he started looking through photographs and other images that might supplement the words. Between January and the end of May, he worked with an editor and a graphics person to pull together his thoughts and place them in a layout that communicated the joy of painting.

Larry said the name of the book came from the online classes he had been forced to do during the COVID-19 pandemic: “Art To You With Larry.”

“I couldn’t have my classes, so we had to figure out other ways of keeping the classes going — keeping the adults that I had engaged in painting,” he said.

The videos were done as a series of four classes, with Larry providing instruction and listing the materials the viewers would need to create their own paintings.

“So I started looking at that and said, ‘Well, this is something that could work with the book,’” he said.

Larry is working with photographer/videographer Alan MacRae in creating videos that will accompany the print edition of his new book. By October, there will be 12 videos that supplement the book’s text and graphics.

“So what we’ve got now is a book with plenty of instruction, plenty of background information, some fundamental stuff with design and composition, a lot about watercolor; and we’ve got a supplement now where we’ve got this little Larry — the cartoon that’s on the cover of the book — with little versions of it inside and there are 12 of them” to correspond with the 12 videos, Larry said.

“So, as of October, the people who buy the book will have access to 12 instructional videos in addition to the book, so that way, they’ve got the pictures, they’ve got the words, and if that doesn’t make sense, they’ve got the action. They’ll be able to see it from different points of view, especially like brush strokes. Instead of just seeing a hand holding a brush, they’ll be able to see how much pressure I put on the brush or how I twist the brush,” Larry said.

The videos will be password-protected, so owners of the book will contact Larry with verification of the purchase in order to get their password to unlock the video. Or, he said, people may want to purchase the video alone, “which means eventually you’re going to want the book.”

“Ideally,” he added, “it would be nice to do an e-book.” That would allow him to link a photo in the e-book with the accompanying video. “But technology-wise, I’m not there yet.”

While all of the writing is Larry’s, he wanted to include some students’ work as well as some photographs that readers can use in creating their own watercolors. Seven local photographers contributed three photos each to serve as subjects for the readers’ own experiments with watercolor. Those pages are followed by examples of Larry’s and his students’ works to show how diverse the interpretations and use of watercolor can be.

Those interested in the book may purchase it directly from Larry at www.larryfratescreates.com, or at the Belknap Mill. Copies soon will be available at bookstores as well.

Another way to learn more about the book is to meet Larry in person at a series of gallery exhibits. The Lakes Region Center for the Arts in Meredith is organizing gallery shows at local libraries as part of its public outreach goal, and engaged Larry for an exhibit at the Wolfeboro Public Library, running through Thursday, Oct. 7. On the final day of the exhibit, there will be a Meet the Artist event at 6 p.m. Larry will talk about his new book and do a painting demonstration.

Larry has future exhibits planned at the Meredith and Moultonborough public libraries.

Larry said he chose Wolfeboro for his first exhibit in the series because he was not as well-known there. “It would be a whole new audience,” he said.

Having been associated with the former Artisans on the Bay in Meredith, as well as other art groups in that town, his name is well-known in Meredith. He also has conducted two watercolor classes at the Meredith library.

As for Moultonborough, during his teaching days, he had served as an art teacher at Moultonborough Academy from its inception until its art department grew to three instructors.

With his background in teaching, Larry likes to describe watercolors as being “the adolescent of all mediums.”

“It’s similar to working with middle school kids,” he said. “Oil is pretty predictable, acrylic is pretty predictable, pen-and-ink is predictable; and watercolor, just when you think you’ve got it, it does something, and it challenges you … and basically, that’s what happens with adolescents.” They seem to have grasped a lesson one day, and the next day, they seem to have left everything they learned at home, and the teacher has to try another angle to get the lesson across.

“I just think it’s a fun thing to do,” he said of watercolor painting. “It’s challenging, it’s simple, and in some cases it’s relaxing, and it will do what you know it will do. But then you reach a point where you want a challenge and so you try other things — it might be a different brush, it might be a new kind of paint, a new color. But I like the spontaneity of it, the challenge of it. It says what it has to say.”

The Belknap Mill is located at 25 Beacon Street East in downtown Laconia, NH; call 603-524-8813.