“Tonto Lone Ranger”

“Gene spent his first four years of college painting…The first of several gifts he gave me was an original watercolor painting. He loved to paint, and I found it exciting to learn how to paint in watercolors from him.

…To relate them more directly to our three-dimensional sculpture, we decided to paint on embossed paper and discovered an artist making handmade paper in Taos…Over the years, we have developed several additional embossing plates that can be used on sheets as large as 40×50 inches, or we can use sections of them to emboss smaller sheets.

…Every challenge created by handmade, embossed papers was merely grist for our mill. The joy of creating in the studio and struggling with the medium was our primary reason for attempting watercolors in the first place.

Gene loved the immediacy and directness of watercolor…We also made an etching from an original watercolor, and after Gene’s death, I produced giclee prints in two sizes.”

– Rebecca Tobey – Excerpt from “Partners in Art”