Off the Deck
Golf is so much more than the scorecard and those birdies that are rarely made. It's about the people you meet along the way. From lifelong bonds to unexpected fast friends, Off the Deck highlights the lives and stories built through the game of golf.
Off the Deck
The Painted Round with Wells Wright
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Driver off the deck for Corey Connor. Here's driver off the deck. Victor Hodlin. So the driver off the deck. I think you would try this, right? Oh my god. Just be able to hit it off the deck and get that thing down and flight and running.
SPEAKER_00You have to put your foot on the gas. You pull out the driver off the deck and you put it on the green all the way up the hill.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to another episode of Off the Deck. My name is Josh Decker. I am the host of uh the show that we refer to as a rudderless ship on occasion. Uh off the deck is brought to you by Itica Golf. Uh hoodie season is here. Uh, thankfully, well, at least almost here. Uh it's still 90 in Birmingham. Um, but Off the Deck uh again is brought to you by Ideca Golf. They have some incredible polos, incredible hoodies. Make sure you use promo code OTD25 at checkout there to save 25%. Uh that's Id aka.gov. And I would also highly suggest checking out their golf glove. Again, that's ID aka.gov and promo code OTD25 for 25% off. Joining me today is uh Mr. Wells Wright. Wells, how are you doing, man? Josh, uh doing well. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for taking time to come on and chat. Uh, this is our first time meeting, which is one of the joys of this show for me is seeing people doing really cool things in golf like you are, and then just reaching out and having an opportunity to hear your story, hear your inspiration, and and learn what you're doing in the creative space for golf. So uh I always like to kind of start off of what's your background? We all have typically nine to fives other than our golf passion. Like for me, it's the podcast, and for you it's your artwork. But what where do you live? Where you where do you work, those kind of things, uh, and then we'll get to the fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Um, born and raised here, have lived here all my life, besides I got up to Knoxville for for four years, uh, went to the University of Tennessee, so I'm a Vol. Um, but yeah, came back here and um had I I work in employee benefits. I'm an employee, a large group employee benefits broker. And so I've got I'm married with two two beautiful kids and live up on Signal Mountain, which is right outside of uh of Chattanooga. And so yeah, that's kind of kind of the nuts and bolts about me. Nice. And so how long have you been playing golf? Uh my whole life. So basically, I my grandfather and my parents both taught me golf. I probably started playing when I was four or five years old, I would say. We'd go out, my grandparents lived in Cleveland, Tennessee. We'd go out to the Cleveland Country Club where they were super active members, uh, would play out there, and then also grew up playing here where I'm currently a member of at the Sigma Mountain Golf and Country Club. I remember as a kid, you know, back in the 90s, riding my bike over to the country club with my friends, uh leaving our clubs there. We we'd play around and then we'd ride to the public pool and then we'd ride home, and that would be our summers. Um so it it was an awesome, kind of an awesome introductory into golf. I've played my whole life, but I'd always laugh and say, I, though I've played forever, I feel like I plateaued for about 25 years at shooting at like the high 80s until I would say the last five years or so, where I've really like so like, all right, let's critically think and focus about our golf game and let's practice intentionally and let's get out there a little bit more. And so have gotten that handicapped down over these last few years. Nice. It's been a lot of fun. Have the kids gotten involved yet? Oh, yeah, they love it. Absolutely love it. So I've got a five-year-old. Uh, she is just starting to get into it, but my seven-year-old son loves it. We'll go hit balls on the range and chip and putting and do everything out there. So it is it is an awesome kind of intro for golf into him, and uh it's fun to be on the other side of it getting getting to introduce him into it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And especially when they have the little successes, like if they make a putt. I mean, even if I mean, I've had my daughter on the golf course, and there's no real rhyme or reason to what she may or may not be doing with the putter, but there's that one in 40 chance that one just drops and everybody goes nuts. And it's it's yeah, there's something special about those times. Um it's it's great. And I love what you said about like the intentionality of practice. That's actually something that I'm kind of going through personally right now with my golf game because I love to play really, really fast. And I've kind of come to the conclusion that it's to my own detriment that I'm playing so fast that I'm not taking the appropriate time and and just thinking through a shot before hitting it. Um, so that's been something I've been working on, but that's not necessarily a conversation for today, but I can attest to what you're what you're talking about. Uh so I was drawn to your Instagram account because you uh posted up at the Good Good event, the King of the Mountain, uh at Sweeton's Cove, and you've got some of that artwork behind you. Yeah. When when did you start painting?
SPEAKER_01So I've kind of always painted. It's interesting. It's a I've got uh kind of an interesting road into art and probably kind of somewhat similar to probably some of the other people that you interview, that I painted a lot when I was young, kind of took 15 years off and went into uh the regular business world, and then kind of recently have have really come back to it. Um really my background around art though is uh I went to a great high school that had a phenomenal arts program. Um really learned basis and foundation of art there. While I was there between my junior and senior year of high school, I got the opportunity to go study abroad in Italy with a Russian master painter, and we basically painted in the hillside of uh it's right out of right outside of a small town called Gangliari, Italy, and we painted every day. And I loved it. It like, I say that trip totally changed my life. It like I grew up in Chattanooga and we had a great childhood, but it kind of like burst this bubble of this much bigger world that's out there, and it was it was awesome. So I but I got a a great foundation from him, and he's still uh one of my key mentors, uh, a man named Dowda Creev. He's a phenomenal artist. Um, but then went to Tennessee, painted here and there. I always had an easel set up. Um, I almost went to art school uh right out of high school. I almost went to the Florence Academy of Art and I was weighing hey, do I want to go the art path or do I want to go the traditional route? Ultimately decided, you know, I want the college experience, went and got a finance degree, got into insurance, put my head down, and you know, enjoyed living in Chattanooga, but build built a really great insurance career. But then when I was about, you know, 35, 34, 35, you kind of come up for air for a minute and you say, all right, well, you know, now that I'm through my 20s and I've got my career and it's growing, you know, what am I missing? Where what do I want the rest of my life to look like? And so I started thinking about goals and started thinking about picking up the paintbrush again. And then unfortunately, had a pretty tragic event in my life. Um, my brother, who's my closest friend, uh passed away. And so very tragically and shockingly, and so that was three years ago. And really, it brought everything into perspective for me. So basically said, you know, not every day is granted to you. If you don't do what you want to do um now, you'll never do it. And I had kind of said, Oh, I'll paint in the future, I'll paint in the future. And I would do a painting or two a year, but uh basically after he passed, a couple months later, I I had on January 1st, I told myself, All right, let's start this, and basically gave myself a goal of painting for a hundred days straight, no exceptions. And so picked up the brush, started painting, and haven't put it down since.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Wow. Uh I want to go back to your high school experience. Um, I've never heard the term master painter before. So is that I I'm familiar with a master samoyer, um, which I want to get into some of your your cocktail creations later on. Um, but what does how does one achieve the goal or achieve the the title of master painter? Honestly, that's above my pay grade.
SPEAKER_01I don't know, I don't I I don't even know. But he uh yeah, he is a he is uh an exceptional artist who you know I believe grew up in St. Petersburg, went to the Russian Academy of Art, and splits his time between uh living in Spain half the year and living here in Chatinga half the year. And so we still still keep in close contact. And then his son, Tamor, is a phenomenal painter too, and he and I are good friends and share painting notes, and so it's been great.
SPEAKER_02So is that something we're uh the the painting day after day after day? You're learning new techniques or fine, fine-tuning a specific technique. If I am brand new into the world of art, which that's not far from the truth, um, I I mean I know good pieces they're at least that I find aesthetically pleasing when I see them. Uh, we just got back from Paris and I saw the Mona Lisa, and I think I immediately Googled what's the significance of the Mona Lisa, um, which you probably find appalling. But it was like, wait, we waited all this time to get to the front of this viewing area so we could see this portrait of this uh woman and her wry smile. Like I it didn't it didn't really make sense to me. Um so yeah, what was the the main goal there? Or just tell me about that process and what you were doing day in and day out because this is fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_01So actually initially I I did that kind of that first year, I did only uh I did menswear portraits. I did about 50 menswear portraits of different French and Italian tailors and some Instagram folks and really just getting back into it. But ultimately, I love doing landscapes. And as I was as I was kind of picking the brush back up and thinking through, all right, where do I want to take this? Um, the two things, my my two loves in life and really my two meditations in life are being on the golf course and then also sitting and painting. And I I wanted to combine the two and basically sat down and said, all right, I'm gonna start knocking out a few paintings and a few golf course paintings. And so I did a couple of Augusta, a couple of Signal Mountain. Um, and then it has just really exploded and grown and kind of grown into the painted round of the my whole idea and concept of of where I want to take it. And so it's it's significantly developed from where I started and just picking off the brush to now having a somewhat idea of a business plan and where I want to take it and how I want to tell stories around golf and do it visually through through art.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that's one of the things I learned. So uh I've had Mark Rivard on um who is charcoal golf. Um, and he explained to me, and I did not know this, that a golf course, let's take Augusta National, for example, which you just referred to, I didn't realize that they didn't have some level of licensing on the actual landscape and land that where that golf course is located. Um, and Mark educated me on that. So what's fascinating to me is you've got a just world of golf courses at your fingertips that you can use through imagery or looking at satellite imagery that then you can pull up and paint. Is that typically how you're doing yours, or are you doing yours where you are on site and looking at it through your own lens and and then putting something down on the canvas?
SPEAKER_01A little bit of both, honestly. And so I most of the courses I've painted are uh I'll go on site and take pictures. And so basically I love to be on site, get the feel of the course, walk the course, hopefully get a chance to play it. But uh, but take pictures, find really great compositions of the course. It might not be the most famous whole, um, is not always the best painting, but truly uh take some phenomenal photos, really get the feel for it, and then create that into a full painting series. But I do, in terms of like Agussa or others, definitely have to use reference photos because it's not like not like that's a course I can just walk on to whenever I want, right?
SPEAKER_02Right. Hey, Chairman Ridley, can you give me if I just do a walk around the course, just hang out for a couple hours? So so you talked about uh January 1 and and kind of that the the internal moment you had of deciding to to take the leap. Um and you launched the painted round. Um so so tell me, you already kind of alluded to it. What is what is your plan with the painted round? What what are you wanting to do with that? And if you were to see five years down the road for it to be a success, what does that look like? Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So the painted round, basically, in my mind, is the intersection between golf art and storytelling. Uh, with oil painting being the backbone. Um, essentially, when I started painting golf courses, I was just kind of doing one-off courses here and there. But when I would get on the course, there were so many incredible views. I would take so many good pictures, so many good reference photos, basically say I have all this content that's not being used. And there's so much history and heritage behind these courses, too, within the stories. I was like, I want to wrap all this up. I don't want to just do a single painting that's a pretty picture and then move on. There's a lot to be told here. And so my whole idea behind the painted round is to go course to course, uh, find really interesting places. Might they might not always be the most famous course, but places that have great stories, great character behind them. Um get on site, get a feel for the course, take phenomenal pictures, do a series of three or four or five paintings of that course. Um then while I'm going through that process, publish field notes, what I'm going through, how that process looks like, what that process looks like, and then ultimately uh do some long-form essays too, talking about the history of the course or or you mentioned my cocktail, um, getting into the 19th hole of some of these courses. They might have a might have like Sweet and Scove has their whiskey, right? And so uh doing some doing some cocktails and really just exploring the whole um culture of the course through the painter's eye.
SPEAKER_02I love that. I love that. And is that something where then someone would potentially purchase the entire series? I mean, I I I would assume that that's something you would make available. Yeah, then those stories will come with it. Or tell me what the model, if you can, uh in in greater detail of how the consumer would potentially consume everything you just described.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that is still work in progress as as I'm going through it. But ultimately, every painting I do is up for sale. Also, the goal is to make prints, and I ideally every course I'd love to paint or I paint, I'd love to eventually, you know, have my painting in their clubhouse one day or have members, a certain member connect with that painting and purchase it, but then also work with that those courses on saying, hey, let's put some prints in the pro shop, let's potentially do a special project for a member guest that's coming up, an event, let's do a charity auction and we uh something that's coming up for for the course, and we can auction off a painting. Um so that's I guess the art side, but then um through wellswright.com and through my Instagram, I publish pictures, I'll publish field notes, I publish writing, and ultimately kind of the pie in the sky for me. You said, where do we where do I want to go? Where do I want to be in five years? Uh my ultimate goal is to see some really cool places, expand my art, um, and ultimately get a portfolio of work where I've gone to 10, 15, 20, 25 courses and done this. And my ultimate goal then is to uh really just potentially turn it into a book or turn it into a docuseries with a cross sell something like that down the road.
SPEAKER_02That's very cool. That's very cool. So I I I've I mean, just poured myself over your social media and and the imagery that you've already produced. I would love to know a look into or behind the scenes look into what actually goes into you painting one of these landscapes. Um there's like I said, uh, for those watching on YouTube, there's uh some beautiful artwork over both of his shoulders. And I'm fascinated to know the time it takes to produce something like that. Um can you expound on just that process?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So basically, I'll take pictures, I'll decide what has the best composition realistically. I'll I'm always looking for a really great foreground, middle ground, background. I personally love Appalachian golf. Being from Tennessee, living on a mountain, I love having courses with mountains in the background and large skies because that feels like home to me. And so I feel like honestly, as I'm painting and as my style is developing, that's what I'm I find I'm I'm drawn to. So you'll see a lot of my paintings have have big clouds in the background of them. Um, but ultimately what I'll do is I will basically sketch out an underpainting. Uh like I'll I'll do um I'll do kind of a red transparent oxide uh layer under it so you're not just painting on white. Um, and then I basically will use a pencil, sketch it out because uh I want to get the structure of all this right. I know a lot of artists will just do it with their brush. Um I'm a little bit more uh, I don't know, I like to get in the details on things. And so I was like, I want everything to be the building box to be perfect once I start to put paint down. Uh but then basically then I'll layer in the big shapes, um, start with the darks, go to the lights. Um, and when when you're through the process, I there's always a point where I'm like, this is the ugliest painting I've ever done. Because it it goes in layers. I'm like, I'll do big shapes, then I'll do medium shapes, then smaller, and and you have to like let it dry and then do another layer and let it dry. And so ultimately I sp I probably spend, depending on the size, 15 to 30 hours per painting.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Okay. And so there were a few things there that I wanted to touch on. Um, when you're drawing it with a pencil, how much is that gonna be every single detail that I see in the painting, the final product, is that gonna be in pencil as well? Or is it gonna be if there's a tree there, you're just gonna kind of outline that the tree is in this location. And then if there's a pond there or water, you'll you'll know where that is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, correct. So basically that's just my guide. And then when I'm painting, I basically have my iPad up next to me with the actual photo that I'm painting. So I'll be looking at that, but uh, it's really just to get the shapes in the place that I that I want them to be. Um, I don't get go into too much detail um at all. It's basically just being like, all right, here's where foreground is, here's what the green needs to look like, here's what the middle ground fairway needs to look like, here's where the trees are placed, here's where the mountains are placed. Let's start painting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And you said 15 to 30 hours depending on the size. So give me a the low end range of the size and the high end range of the size, given those timelines.
SPEAKER_01What's a 15-hour a 15-hour painting is probably like a 11 by 14 inch painting or uh 12 by 16, uh 30 hour painting or like the two behind me that are 24 by 36.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Wow. Or three behind me, yeah. And the I mean, uh this is gonna sound maybe backwards, but I feel like the colors on the golf course are somewhat limited. But because unless you're doing something crazy with the sky, we've got blue sky, we've got trees, and we have grass and potentially water. So lots of greens and lots of blues. Is that a fair assessment? Very fair assessment. Okay. And so how do you dial in, and this might go be going back to some of your time in Italy with the the master painter, how do you dial in the colors to match the imagery that you have captured from walking that golf course?
SPEAKER_01Um, honestly, it's it's through photography and then it's through feel. Um, so basically it's it's really training your eye to uh See the colors and see how I feel the colors, right? Like my goal truly isn't to um isn't to do the most photorealistic painting. That actually is what's separates me from what I feel like a lot of other golf course starts. My goal is to paint how it feels to be on that golf course. Um so I'll I try to bring out a lot of warm yellows, a lot of some of the warmer colors that you see on the course. Um, and truly um it honestly is just a process of, you know, try and if something doesn't look right, scrape it off and try again a lot of times, too.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And is that so so how many colors are you mixing to create the color of the green and then the color of the rough and then the color of the sand? Like what does that process look like?
SPEAKER_01So I probably have like 12 color, 10 to 12 colors I consistently use. So I have like two greens, two yellows, three blues, um, all varying different hue, a white, um a red, an orange, and then basically just using color theory to get to the kind of the colors that I I want to show. And then a lot of times, truly, you'll like colors play off of each other, right? And so like you'll put a layer down and then think that's what you want. And then I come back, I'm like, oh man, I gotta go way darker here. I gotta bring out the highlights here, and it's an ever-evolving process.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you you kind of touched on that. So you said that you'll paint part of it and then let it dry, and then you come back and it you said dark first. And again, I know nothing about this process, but I know beautiful things when I see them and I love your stuff. Um, so what is how does that work? What's the timeline between because if it's 15 hours, I know you're not just sitting down and over 15 straight hours painting this. It sounds like it's a a few weeks long process. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it so typically, again, I have a full-time job and have have two young kids at home. So yeah, so I I am fortunate enough to be a night owl. And so, like when the kids go down, my wife goes down at about 9.30. I start painting and I'll paint till about one at night. Oh my gosh. So, and and I'll do that four to five nights a week, probably. Okay. And so I will get, you know, some nights it'll be an hour and a half, some nights it'll be three hours of painting. And so sometimes I'll, you know, especially if I'm under a commission deadline or if I'm just getting like on a roll, I'll I can knock out a painting in a week, but sometimes it'll take me three. It all just depends on the size of the painting, the complexity, how well it's going, and then my other schedule, because I also get have have other things going on, get really tired too at times. So also there are times where I'm like, I gotta take a break for two days. Um, but yeah, so typically my goal is to try to try to do maybe like three paintings a month.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And are those all working simultaneously that you have those going, or are you gonna start on one, complete it, and then move to the second and then the third?
SPEAKER_01A little bit of both. Um, sometimes I'll have them simultaneously going. The drying process doesn't take as long as some might think. So I'll like work on one section um for a night, let that dry for a day or two, but while that's drying, I'm working on another section of the painting. So typically I just do like one painting at a time, but I might be like, all right, tonight I'm focusing on the grass, the foreground grass, and I'll not knock a layer of that out. The next night I'll say, All right, I'm working on the clouds in the sky today. The next, the next day I'm working on the green. The next day I come back to the grass, and it it's just kind of working your way through the painting until you feel like it's finished.
SPEAKER_02I mean, and again, and you're probably like, man, this guy knows nothing about art, and that's fair. Not at all. But the the more you've talked about it, these are like living, breathing pieces, right? Like, and and I'm sure each one that you've completed, you know what might have been going on in your own life during that time. And so it has a story that is meaningful to you that maybe the consumer or whoever purchases it may not know the background there. Because if you're up till one o'clock in the morning, or if you're really in a flow state, like you I'm sure you think fondly on some pieces and maybe not so fondly on others. Is that fair? 100%.
SPEAKER_01And it's really interesting because even within pieces, there are a lot of things where like I really love this little section, or I really love this piece of cloud, how I did the light coming through, but I don't like this other part. Um, the hard thing in and kind of what I've had to learn to do is when to when to decide to stop. Because at some point there is a true thing of overpainting. Um, and so it is really deciding, all right, this is in a good spot. Is it purveying the message that I really want it to purvey? Yes. Sometimes you're like, all right, don't overanalyze it. It looks good. Let's let's put the brush up.
SPEAKER_02Put the brush down. Yeah. How did uh how did the good good thing come to be of you being present for King on the Mountain?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. So I've been down to Sweetens a number of times, and luckily I'm uh one of my best friends runs the food and beverage down there. And so uh guy named Jason Bowers. Oh yeah, hello Jason. You know Jason?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, bitter alibi. Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So he and I are really, really close. And so he knew I was doing this, and um, we play a lot of golf together and hang out all the time. Basically, the good, good came up and just kind of had the idea. I said, Hey, can I kind of roll out the painted round down there? Do you think they'd be opposed to that? And he said, he talked to I think Matt and and some of the guys down there, and they said, Come on, let's do it. And so basically it was it's kind of the coming out party party for Painted Round, which was really cool because for a long time, most of my career or since I've been doing this, most of it's in the studio, right? It's like me in the office painting and then posting on Instagram. But finally I got a chance to like all of these pieces from a series of work that I've done on Sweet and Scove to getting actual prints made on a couple of the paintings to setting up a booth to talking to the patrons, act good, good all day long and kind of getting to tell getting to tell my story and go through my process like we're doing today was really cool. And I is, you know, it's something I'm never gonna forget because I truly feel like that was though, I've had this idea for the painted round and I've been quietly doing all this work. That was kind of the jumping off moment for me.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. I love hearing that. Yeah, small world too. Yeah, Jason, Jason's great. Um, I've been to a couple of his spots uh in and around Chattanooga. Um, and I've always enjoyed my conversations whenever I run into him. Yeah. Um, so did you paint something there on site?
SPEAKER_01So I did. So I uh you can't see it up here. So my plan was to do a painting on site. I basically did it, it was of number one green with uh kind of that front pothole bunker with high grass, looking at the green behind it. And it was like a hundred degrees out there, and so I had done the block in to be like, all right, I'm gonna be out there for eight to ten hours. I'm gonna finish this on site and get out there, and it was so hot, my oil paintings were my oils were just like melting. And so I I realistically, and I'm like sweating like a dog out there. Like every time I would try to do it for a few minutes, I'm like, I gotta sit down. At one point I laughed. I was like, Jason was like, go get in the the drink cooler. And so I went and like hung out in the drink cooler to cool off for a while and like the big uh the big thing that they had. Uh so so hadn't finished that one yet. My plan was to finish it on site, but it was just so hot. The the paints weren't doing what what I needed them to do. So I kind of had to just hit pause. Uh but it but it let me enjoy the event. It let me actually be able to walk around and see some of the players and get to talk to more folks. And so ultimately, I actually don't even think it was a bad thing. I got to got to uh really, really meet a lot more people because of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a lot more interaction. I hope all of your stuff was put up before that storm blew through. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01We uh it it was, it was. So I ran everything to the car and got out of there like 10 minutes before before the rain hit.
SPEAKER_02So it was I'm not sure if that inflatable Mountain Dew can has landed yet. I don't know if you saw that. Oh, I saw it. I saw it rolling down the fairway. Uh so you you mentioned the prints, and that's something I've I saw on your social media. Um was that uh a challenge for you to be okay with doing prints of your artwork, or was it something because I know there's some incredible value in the original piece and having something commissioned versus having a print of an original piece? What was that process like for you mentally of like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna allow a print to be created of my product? Obviously, it allows for sales of additional pieces, right? But that's then it's not an original, it's a print. Tell me, tell me about that.
SPEAKER_01I uh it's interesting. I I thought it was really cool. It was really cool to actually like because I've painted for years, and even though like, you know, I went through kind of some ups and downs and had some years where I only did two or three paintings, um, it was cool to finally feel like I've taken that next step in my art career, right? And to finally have pieces that I'm proud of and pieces that I feel like um I want to share the world that I really want to share with the world. It's not just one single piece that you put on a wall and someone has in their house, but it's a piece truly that recognizes the just like how great a course can be and really share it with a lot of people. So it was awesome getting to go here to Art Warehouse in Chattanooga, learning the whole process. I'd never done it before. So they kind of took me through a crash course and how how they make prints and what I want, like what paper do I want it on, and how do we do this? And so uh did a number of prints and for of of two of my sweetened pieces. Um when I finish this fourth one, I'm gonna do more prints of the other two. And I'm about to do some prints, uh, I believe of Lookout Mountain course. Uh it's kind of gonna be my next print run. And yeah, it was it was really cool.
SPEAKER_02So I've I've enjoyed it. And so you just walk in with the original, and I know I'm I'm sure I'm simplifying this. Uh then they just scan it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so they have like a giant digital scanner. And so they scan it, I leave it there for a few days, um, come back, and hey, prints will be ready in a week or two. That's cool. So have you already sold out of those or still marketing them? Still marketing them. So down there and online, I've sold sold most of them, but I still have a handful left. Uh okay. Good to know.
SPEAKER_02That was that was a selfish question.
SPEAKER_01No, what's been really cool, one of my favorite things about the prints is uh seeing the golf community, how people kind of show up for the courses they love and for for really kind of unique art stuff. Like again, I don't have a a huge Instagram footprint yet or anything, but I've sold prints to folks in Minnesota and South Carolina and Florida, all just because they either follow Sweeten's Cove or they've found me on their like for you page, and it's come across and they've DMed me and been like, Hey, could I get a print? And I've like, yeah, absolutely. So I'll sign one and ship it to them. And so it's been that's been really cool and really rewarding.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. And like you said, kind of it it's a small community, and I feel like there's a lot of just taking care of one another within the golf space. Um, and I've said this before on the show there's a lot of bad that comes out of social media, but there's also a lot of good. And like us having a conversation today, it exists because of social media. So uh I try to look at the the bright side of all things that are Instagram and Twitter and whatever. Um yeah, that's that's so how many prints did you do initially?
SPEAKER_01So I just initially did 30 because I said I have no idea what how one of these was gonna sell. Right. And so it was kind of my first run, and I've I've got a handful left, but uh I it I think it was uh it was a great first run. So I did 15 and 15 of each, uh of each print, and uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I I feel like all artists have some little something that they put in their pieces or some trait that you already mentioned you like clouds. Is there something that you put in yours that is a unique to Wells Wright art that nobody else does?
SPEAKER_01Uh not there's no little Easter egg that I had in there. Okay. Um, I would I would say my style, though it is ever-evolving, right? Um it would be like a very optimistic, uh almost like atmospheric um American impressionism. Uh so really focusing on atmosphere, really focusing on the mood of being out on the course, um, really focusing on I love painting clouds, so I put a lot of those in my paintings. Um so, but there's no like, oh, I painted a little something in each one. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, like the Sweetens Cove one behind you, like you could add the flyover to it. I don't know if you've been out there when the the woman the Air Force base has done a flyover, but you could put half it. That'd be awesome. It's crazy. It's crazy. Um, which you mentioned Sweetens, and so you're in Chattanooga and you are surrounded by some incredible golf. I feel like it's almost a great secret that the rest of the world does not know yet about that little corner of where Alabama and Chat and Georgia all meet. Um what's your favorite course around that area? I know you're you said you're a member at Signal Mountain, but where do you, if you can play any round around there, where would that be?
SPEAKER_01So I I man, we we have a lot of good golf courses. Um I love Signal because it's where I grew up and that's where my community is, and it's holds a special place in my heart. I think the prettiest course is Lookout Mountain after they've done their renovation, though I think it's extremely hard, and I never score well on it. Um probably my favorite layout is the farm uh down in Dalton. Uh it is it is a really, really cool course.
SPEAKER_02You're the second person that has mentioned that to me. Um, and I have not experienced it yet. I need to I need to check that one off. Yeah. Um and there's so there's yeah, there's what, and there's Black Creek, also, I think that's up there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's Black Creek, Chattanooga Country Club, Council Fire, um you know, McLamore and the keys. The honors. Uh the honors. So looking at my uh kind of next rounds of my slated courses, I've got the honors coming up next, which which I'm I'm working with to hopefully do some paintings. It's kind of my next course. Uh, and then we'll be focusing on uh a couple out-of-town courses with uh I'm gonna try to do Macklemore on the keep, but then also gonna go up to the old farm in Bristol, Virginia, and then do and then do Dormet Club. Those are kind of my my slate for the end of the year.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Well, if if you need uh cont which you probably don't, but if you need a contact at Macklemore, Matt Bateman, who's over all their real estate, has been on the show. Um, and we chat often because I'm like, man, I gotta get up and play the keep. I've played the Highlands course, but I haven't played the keep yet. And that's just I love going up there because I feel like it's like 20 degrees cooler than than where you came from, at least where I came from in Birmingham. I'm like, God, we get to altitude and it feels amazing up here.
SPEAKER_01So have you played the keep yet either? So I've I've played I've played uh the Highland scores a bunch, um, but still since they've built the keep, so that is that is on my slate for this fall to try to get out there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I I look forward to seeing what you do for Lookout because I played Lookout um, I guess it was about a year ago now, and man, very difficult, like you said, but also an absolute blast of a golf course. Yeah. Um, and I I love that it's it's not long, but the teeth are the greens and those approach shots. I mean, you can end up in absolute jail. Um and it's just it's such a cool piece of property.
SPEAKER_01We so I've done three so far. Actually, this one over my shoulder is of lookout. Yeah. So I've done three of lookouts. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's number five. And so um I've done three of Lookout so far. I'm actually gonna be out there at sunrise tomorrow morning taking pictures. Um because I I there's still quite a few views that I want to do out there. And so I'm gonna be up there tomorrow uh taking some pictures and playing in the morning. Uh so I'll probably try to knock out at least one or two more of Lookout. But that's I mean, there, it's it's it's a great course. It's beautiful out there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Um, I thank you for taking time to come on and chat. I always love hearing stories like yours, and and it's inspiring that you took the leap that you did, um, albeit because of a tragic accident, which I'm terribly sorry to hear that that's what it was. But there's something beautiful that came out of it, right? Like it it sparked something in you of like, no, let's let's live now, um, as opposed to putting something on the back burner. So that um I thank you for sharing that. Um but we'll give you a couple quick little questions and then we'll let you get back to either the paintbrush or the kids. Um what what's your favorite club in the bag right now?
SPEAKER_01Uh favorite club in the bag. I I guess probably my drive. I've been crushing it this summer. Nice. And so, and so, and I have not always been able to say that. So I've I feel like the last year or two I've figured something out to where um I can get myself into position to score. So it's fun when I don't have to worry about like a giant slice. I can I'm I'm actually hitting it straight some days, yeah, and I can just kind of swing away and then uh then go after pins on my second shot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, confidence on the T-Box is invaluable. Like being able just to swing away and and not worry about that slice like you were talking about is such a freeing feeling. Yeah. Um if you were able to go through your entire process of taking pictures on site and then painting uh and doing the full walk like we were talking about, uh, if you could pick one hole in golf to do that, what hole would it be?
SPEAKER_01Gosh, that'd be hard. Um I don't know a specific hole, but I would say going out to Bandon Dunes and probably Pacific Dunes uh will would be my my like number one spot. So I'm going out there actually in for a trip in next May. And so all all next summer will be will be Bandon paintings for me. Um but that that has been on my list of my Mecca of hey, there's so much out here that I'm excited visually to go experience and to play the courses clearly, but then also learn about them, take pictures, uh learn the stories, learn the architecture, and then ultimately do just like a really cool series of paintings. So I'll I'll I'll be able to answer. I feel like I'll be able to answer that question better in about a year from now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and if you like clouds, like you're gonna about to have clouds four days. Like because you can see forever out there. Um, I what I want to follow up with you after that trip because I think you will be blown away by Bandon Trails. Okay. Bandon Trails is sneaky good. And and I and I mean everybody loves Bandon and Pacific, and of course, Old Mac and Sheep Ranch, but trails, man, trails is is it's almost spiritual because you kind of you get away from the ocean a little bit, but you know you're still right on the ocean. And it yeah, it was I it I think it was my favorite round out there when I went uh about a year and a half ago. Um we had great weather and it just it's such a fun walk, and that's when you hop on like the little trolley, then they like drive you up and you're just holding your golf bag. Um, but yeah, I'd love to hear what you think um afterwards.
SPEAKER_01You're like the fourth person that's told me that. Am I really? Everyone is like, all the courses are great, but sneaky bandon trails was my favorite.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I think because of how you paint and what you've told me about how you paint, there's a lot at on like Bandon and Pack Dunes and even Sheep Ranch that not I don't want to say gets lost because that's not a fair way to describe those golf courses. You're gonna be able to do more. Visually, with your skills and painting with what Bandon Trails gives you, I think. Okay. Because Bandon and Pac Dunes and even Sheep and Old Mac are more kind of rolling, almost look like someone threw a uh comforter out on a bed, and you've got those rolling kind of hills. Whereas Trails has changes in elevation, and there's just there's more to take in visually in my mind than those other ones provide you.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah. And that's what I love is that, like you said, that the contours, the elevation change, the the wide sweeping bunkers building its way up to uh you know to uh a green with a phenomenal background. So I'm excited to see it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's awesome. I hope you have a great time on that trip. Thanks. Um so you I've seen some other stuff on your social medias uh or your social media where you do you create some incredible cocktails. What is your what is your cocktail of choice and and will you share that recipe?
SPEAKER_01Um I will. So I've I go back and forth. Uh when I make at home the most, and it kind of depends on on what I have and what I'm in the mood for. I love a paper plane, uh, and I love a Grand Manhattan. Okay. Uh I would say a paper plane is like, though it's a little bit different, it's a little bit more of a summer cocktail. Um, it is it's it's probably my favorite. So uh have you ever had one? I have. I don't recall what's in it though.
SPEAKER_02This is it's been a while.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it is uh so it's four equal parts whiskey, Aperol, Amaro Nanino, and lemon juice. And so it's it's a bright orange drink when it comes out, and it's normally served up, but a lot of times I'll just throw it on the rocks in a rocks glass, and uh it's just super refreshing for specifically a whiskey drink.
SPEAKER_02Okay, perfect. That's that's what I need. Yeah, I'll have to write that down. I might text you afterwards to get the those ingredients again. Yeah, um please do. So you mentioned in the less the last question, and we'll let you go. You mentioned that you're gonna be at lookout first thing in the morning. Do you prefer to do sweep or do you prefer golden hour? Um for golf or painting?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes. Let's do both. Okay. For golf, I love I love uh knocking off the dew in the morning. Uh for painting, I like golden hour. And so though both are really good, the light is great for both. Uh painting golden hour, I feel like the skies, the colors you get are typically more vibrant. Uh, but golf, nothing is better than waking up early, being the first one there, getting a cup of coffee, like in the clubhouse, uh, and just like being like the first one off the tee when it's wide open as the sun's coming up. It's awesome. What about you?
SPEAKER_02That's uh I so I'm a golden hour. Uh I I prefer later in the day, hopefully the course may have cleared out. Um, but I I love I've had incredible moments with some of my best friends playing until we couldn't see, until one of us hit a shot and we all kind of look around. We're like, um, don't know where that went. Probably time to call it. Um, and I'm I'm not generally a morning person. Um, I do have an immense amount of appreciation though for dew sweeping and just being the first off. I mean, that's something that's incredible, right? Like you don't have to worry about anything in front of you other than the greens keeper, hopefully already being clear of the green that you're trying to hit into. Um, but no, I'm I'm later in the day um for for only that reason of just the sunsets and and hopefully it being a little more casual. Yeah. Well, I don't think you can go wrong either way. So agreed. Agreed. Well, this has been a a blast of a chat. Um, I look forward to keeping up with all your success and everything that you're doing with the painted round. Uh, you're probably gonna see some orders come through as as soon as we wrap this up because that's something I in a recent episode, someone asked me what my go-to item is right now when I'm in a pro shop. And lately it's become art. It's either been pin flags or art, and it's because not only do I have too many hats and polos, but uh the products and what you create evoke a different emotion, and it has a story behind it and it has meaning behind it, and you can look at it and it just does something different than a polo. Um so I'm excited to get my hands on some of your work, and I appreciate the heck about heck appreciate the heck out of what you do. I think it's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you so much. No, I really appreciate you having me on. It's it's great meeting you. I know we've we've texted back and forth and DM'd, but it's awesome to have this conversation and uh really appreciate you you being interested in the pan and around and my story and and uh my art.
SPEAKER_02So so I really do appreciate her. Thank you. Well, for Wells Ride, I'm Josh Decker, and this has been another episode of Off the Deck.
