Flipping through his portfolio, artist Alan Byron Hampshire comes across press clippings from MV Times, a newspaper in Martha’s Vineyard. The clippings, featuring his paintings of the area, dubbed him the “Watercolor Wonder.”
After a decade-and-a-half working with oils, the Kankakee native found that his preferred medium was watercolor. Starting his artistic journey in New York City, Hampshire found himself painting murals, such as a commission for Carnegie Hall. He’d later move to Martha’s Vineyard, where he’d create dozens upon dozens of watercolor works of the quaint ocean town.
When he moved back to Kankakee, just before the pandemic, he brought his work and his cat, Ashton Kutcher, with him. As quarantine hit and everyone was stuck inside, Hampshire passed the time by going around Kankakee to paint the city’s churches.
“I grew up here, but I left when I was like 17 and then I didn't really remember all these beautiful churches,” Hampshire said. “So, during the lockdown, when you weren't supposed to go out anywhere, I went out every day and I would sit painting these churches. That was my painting project during the plague in the lockdown.”
While this project currently exists in Hampshire’s portfolio and has yet to be publicly shown, the artist recently gave a presentation at the Kankakee Public Library showcasing his exhibit “60 Years A Legend.”
The exhibit honored the 60th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death on Aug. 4, 1962. Paintings, which currently hang on the library’s third floor, depict different angles of Monroe and use minimal touches of vibrant watercolors.
“My teacher told me I had the most plebeian taste,” Hampshire recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘What’s plebeian?’ and he said I have the most pedestrian taste, you know, like simple art for simple minds.”
He doesn’t mind that categorization, as he feels like it describes the likes of Andy Warhol, of whom he is a big fan.
“[My teacher said] to me, ‘You have what Andy had … you have your hand on the pulse of the common man.’”
<strong>LIFE OF AN ARTIST</strong>
On the subject of Warhol, Hampshire recalled he’d often see him wandering around New York City in the 1980s. Hampshire’s life in New York – which began right after graduating high school – was something out of a movie, from cooking artistically-themed dinners for Elizabeth Taylor to being held at gunpoint by Phil Spector at Joan Rivers’ house, the artist has no shortage of stories.
“I had like a million jobs. I was kind of a Jack of all trades in New York,” he said with a laugh.
One of those jobs was working at a parrot shop. A self-described lover of animals – in addition to Ashton Kutcher, he has a kitten named Squeaky Fromme and a dog named Dave – Hampshire had the magic touch when it came to these birds that can be difficult to manage.
But his for-money work never kept him from his true passion of art.
“One time [while painting at Carnegie Hall], a little girl, I was talking to her [and] telling her, ‘I'm doing this worm’s eye view, like the perspective from the bottom looking up, like a real sharp angle.’ And, the little girl goes, ‘I know all about perspective,’” he remembered with a smile. “I was like, ‘Only in Manhattan…’”
With a story that could fill a book, the artist continues his work in his home studio in Kankakee. Currently working on a series of watercolors of Princess Diana, the Watercolor Wonder hopes to show more of his art to the local public in the near future.