Alva Review-Courier -

Calvin Graybill moved to Alva about 20 years ago, and he's established a reputation with his paintings of rural life. His northwest Oklahoma surroundings are evident in scenes of wheat harvest and abandoned farm homes, always dominated by skies stacked with clouds.

"I took lessons from a man when I was just getting out of college, and he painted skies," said Graybill. "It kind of stuck with me. I take lots of cloud pictures. I pick out a subject I want to use and then I think, 'what kind of cloud would look good with that?' I end up using storm clouds most of the time."

He comes up with ideas from various sources. He says he looks at magazines and the work of other painters until something "just kind of rings a bell."

But he doesn't try to duplicate a photo or a scene. "I finished one just recently of the Gloss Mountains. I found this one scene that I really liked, but my problem is I deviate a lot, make things up," Graybill said. "People will ask me, 'Where's this at?' And I say ... tapping his head ... right here. That's a Calvin Graybill cloud or that's a Calvin Graybill scene. It doesn't exist. I keep working on it. I move things around and kind of get it like I want it."

He says he's tried painting people, but "I'm not really a people person. There are several other things that just never really appealed to me."

Lately Graybill has been experimenting, moving beyond blue skies and storm clouds to different colors. "I just did a sunset painting," he said. "I want to experiment more with the colors that come up with the sunset."

One of Graybill's paintings in this month's exhibit at Graceful Arts Gallery in Alva features a sunset. But Graybill said it's not finished. He wants to work with it some more.

When asked how he knows a painting is finished, he said with a chuckle, "When I get all of it covered. What really scares me worse than anything is a blank canvas. That scares me to death."

He puts in a lot of color, figuring out what colors he wants to use. "But I'm never satisfied. My wife will tell you that. She'll tell me, 'Just finish it.' I try to keep peaking it all the time, and I need to quit doing that," he said. "I work on several paintings at the same time. So I'll finally put it down and I'll look at it, but I'll get interested in another painting. So I kind of lose interest in that and get something else started."

Later on the sidewalk in front of the gallery that evening, Graybill said, "Look at that" as he pointed to the western sky. The setting sun was painting the underside of clouds with brilliant streaks. Graybill raised his cellphone and began to take pictures, inspiration for his experiments in sunset painting.