Second Life Period: The Young Artist (age 19-24;  6 years, 1884-89)

Collected snippets describe Paul as a young adult:

• Short, 5-6 to 5-8, about 160 pounds;
• Gray eyes & dark, olive complexion;
• Quiet and reserved, always gracious & charming;
• Joined First Baptist Church, attended occasionally;
• Loved nature, especially loved fishing;
• Skilled at art; lack of talent for marketing would burden his entire life.

At age nineteen Paul enrolled in art classes at Cincinnati Art Academy. He commuted from the Covington home of his mother’s sister, Sarah McKee. He was introduced to “en plein air”—French for painting outside in the open air with natural light, often started by sketching what was seen in the changing sunlight, then finished later indoors. He learned about European artists like Monet & Renoir and their “impressionist” style.  Paul was deeply inspired by impressionism, which would dominate his painting thru his most productive adult years.

In 1886 Paul’s grandmother, Penelope Wingate, donated money to build a parsonage behind First Baptist Church.  This generous act would be of great significance to Paul a few years later.

Also that year, former students Paul Sawyier and Avery Sharp opened a portrait studio in downtown Cincinnati. It lasted about a year — until Paul’s father sent an ultimatum insisting Paul return home and go to work for his new hemp mill (located on the Kentucky River where Jim’s Seafood stood until recently)

His new job was “traveling salesman.” Traveling by train thru midwestern states, he stayed on the road 2-4 weeks at a time selling rope and twine.     Payroll documents show Paul worked for the mill off and on over the six years between 1887 and 1893. But–those “on periods” add up to only about eighteen months, and there’s many “blanks” when Paul’s name is not among those getting paid.  Unemployed periods add up to more than four of the six years.

Other sources place him in Frankfort many times during those six years. Though Paul continued living in the family home on Broadway, numerous sources mention his strong belief that an artist should be able to live on his art and taking a job would be admitting failure as an artist. This attitude only got stronger as the years passed, even though he continually struggled to make ends meet.

Paul’s second art training was in 1889 at the New York Art Students League. League records imply he was there two semesters, but 1890 mill payroll records show him selling string from Minnesota to Delaware in April—proving he wasn’t in school.

Around this time Paul and Mayme’s names became linked romantically. Older biographies say things like…     “while attending a party at Emma Morris’s home, Paul ‘met’ and fell in love with Miss Mayme Bull.  The fact is Frankfort was a small town in those days, so Paul and Mayme undoubtedly already knew each other. The Bulls lived only 7-8 blocks from the Sawyiers, and Mayme had five brothers Paul certainly would have known.  One brother even appeared in a stage play with Paul.

In 1871 the new Second Street School was Frankfort’s only public school. Paul turned six years old in March, and enrolled in first grade that September. Mayme reached age six in July.  I lack proof she entered school the same time as Paul, but the Bull family lived just two blocks from the school, and a photo a few years later shows Mayme’s sister Cordelia in a group at the school’s front door.   I conclude Paul and Mayme knew each other all their lives. Her story is Paul’s story, and his story is hers; neither story is complete without the other.

Aside from that, Paul and Mayme truly “found” each other in 1887, when both were twenty-two yrs old. They soon became thick as thieves, and attended many dance events in Midway, Versailles and Frankfort. One news item called them “the handsomest young couple in Frankfort.”  They frequently went canoeing—Mayme would bring a picnic basket, Paul would sketch & paint.

In spring 1887 they boated downriver for a week-long group camping trip to Drennan Springs in Henry County. They lived in tents, ate by campfire, and spent their days playing games & dancing.  When they returned Mayme wrote a poem,   that begins: “Yes, my lips tonight have spoken    words I said they should not speak,     and I would I could recall them,    would I had not been so weak…  and it ends:  but I meant to keep one secret     in my bosom always hid,    for I never meant to tell you     that I loved you… but I did.

In September 1890, Paul registered a second time at Cincinnati Arts Academy – his third and last-ever formal art training. At age twenty-five his artistry was well developed, but there is reasonable question about development of his life:  he would live with his parents for the next 18 years.