Theodore Waddell

Tucker Gets Tuckered, 2006
Hardcover
9.25 x 11.50 in
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Theodore Waddell's first children's book! This charming book about his beloved Bernese Mountain dogs is a story about a playful pooch who has to get involved in everything. Tucker's not the kind of dog who just sits around the house. Oh no. There's always something fun to do somewhere, and whatever it is, Tucker knows where to find it. Is that Tucker on the golf course? Is that him sunning on the beach? You won't believe all the crazy things he likes to do, and all the different places he likes to go. No wonder Tucker gets tuckered. Wouldn't you? 44 Pages ISBN: 0-9719515-6-x


ABout the Artist

Theodore Waddell

 

 

 

The heart and hand needed to create a strong American painting is not limited to those living east of the Mississippi. It is a product of endless work, self-evaluation, and the courage to allow one's paintings to evolve. It demands the marriage of the artist's lifestyle and his work. Theodore Waddell exemplifies this definition. His enthusiasm and lifestyle are reflected in the way he works and the imagery he uses.

Waddell's paintings are a combination of rough marks; thick paint; transparent elegant strokes; and, on a few occasions a slow, hard line scratched into the canvas. You can feel the movement of the paint throughout the paintings but the subjects are frozen. They are not frozen as a stagnant object but captured as a solitary image. Captured, interpreted and enveloped in the landscape. They are carved out of, or laid onto the green and grey-yellow of the spring and summer, or the white canopy of winter. And sometimes there are ghosts in the paintings, the faint image of what has changed in the piece or decays in the pasture. These ghosts refer to Waddell's interest in life and death and our own mortality. They are metaphors for the struggle and change that is constant in life. In his artist's statement he says, "The understanding of death brings about a feeling of wonderfulness and appreciation of life and just how fragile and magical it all is."

Whether Waddell is studying the changing seasons, animals as individuals, or the later figures, one can see his magic in his reverence for nature and celebration of paint. He is a painter's painter: strong hearted, sure handed and high spirited.

Therefore, if I must categorize Waddell, he will live in the ranks of American painters and not be limited to the confines of the western artist.

 

Jennifer Complo McNutt

Curator of Contemporary Art

Eiteljorg Museum

 

 

Click here to view the artist's CV

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