Whiskey creates nice art

Sis Soller's painting is matted in a small frame, hung on a wall in the Butler Institute of American Art gift shop. Dark, billowing clouds, rise above a miniature restless sea; seagulls -- barely single brush strokes -- wait for the "Storm Moving In." Adding to the small watercolor's interest, on the placard that identifies that title and Soller, is the label "whiskey painting."
What, my sister and I wondered, is a whiskey painting?
The gift shop employee didn't know, but she, too, was intrigued. She called the administrative offices, but the woman who answered was puzzled as well. And the person who "would surely know" was out to lunch.
We left with our mystery.
Later that evening, my sister e-mailed from Cleveland. In the body of the note, she had typed "whiskey painting," with a link to a Web site.
It was at that site that I discovered the Whiskey Painters of America and Sis Soller's telephone number in Youngstown.
The whiskey story
The story is so charming that it bears relating. In the late 1950s, an artist by the name of Joe Ferriot traveled a great deal with his plastics manufacturing firm.
He longed to paint on these trips, but decided dragging along his art supplies was not possible. In a moment of inspiration, if not desperation, Ferriot created a tiny watercolor palette from an aspirin tin.
Next, he made a brush that screwed apart like a pool cue. He cut strips of pocket-sized watercolor paper, tucked these and the tin into his shirt pocket, and voil & agrave;, he could paint wherever he wanted.
And where he wanted to paint was after the work day in the neighborhood bar. While he and his friends drank, he took out his palette, dipped his brush into his whiskey glass, and, to everyone's delight, produced a miniature painting.
Back among his friends at the Akron Society of Artists, Ferriot encouraged others to do the same, and so, the Whiskey Painters of America was born.
"I've been a member for just over a year," Sis said, seated on a sofa in a living room cluttered with art -- from three, 10-inch tall, decoupage wisemen to dozens of framed paintings. "There are 150 members worldwide; it's limited to that," she said. "You must be sponsored by a member to get in. It's an honor."
About the paintings
Sis, whose real name is Margaret, has not yet created a whiskey painting in a bar, but, as per club requirements, she has used whiskey mixed with her paint.
"A whiskey painting is by definition painted by a WPA member with alcohol as part of the medium," Sis said. "It is not more than 20 square inches. They're tricky to make small -- to get the feeling across."
It's less tricky for the viewer to receive the feeling: A young couple walks arm in arm through Mill Creek during the late fall in one of Sis' whiskey paintings; it's easy to sense their contentment with their company and their surroundings.
Sis has her palette in an Altoid tin, and though she enjoys creating whiskey paintings, she spends most of her time making large-sized portraits with a normal-sized palette. While the whiskey paintings require a few sketched lines, then 45 minutes to two hours of actual painting time (not counting drying time between colors), the portraits take around 15 hours, plus preliminary sketching.
Experience
Sis is co-president of the Mahoning County Watercolor Society. Those framed artworks that hide her walls are for the most part those of friends or acquisitions from art shows, but many are her own.
"Someone once told me I'm too normal to be an artist," Sis said and laughed. She grew up in Mount Adams, in Cincinnati.
Now a senior ("I'm 76 and holding"), a mother of two adult daughters and a son, she teaches watercolor at a senior center once a week. With 53 years' experience in the arts, she has a lot to offer.
But, said Sis, "I'm a nice painter, not a great painter. I don't think I'll ever get into the Ohio Watercolor Association, but being accepted into the Whiskey Painters is such an honor and fun. People are always curious about it; they ask what it is and how it started."
murphy@vindy.com