Fish Fulfillment

You remember how to whistle ("The Andy Griffith Show" theme), don't ya? You just put your lips together and (call up that catchy melody from your memory) blow.

("That's some fiiiiine whistlin', Ope. ... Thanks, Pa.")

You're not in Mayberry. You're in Las Vegas. And that tune you were just whistling -- c'mon, we know you were -- actually has a name (lyrics, too!): "The Fishin' Hole." Which brings us to the Winchester Cultural Center.

"The fishing around here is not very good, and I've been missing that aspect of my life," says JW Caldwell, the artist who set his preferred pastime to watercolors for "I'd Rather Be Fishin'," the center's current exhibit. "A lot of my fishing trips over the last few years have been canceled, and I was feeling nostalgic, so I started pulling out old photographs from past fishing trips and dug in. It had a placebo kind of effect for me."

The man looks like he could climb right into his pastoral paintings. The little boy who grew up fishing the Alamo River in Banning, Calif., now sports a scraggly beard, scrunched military cap, Buddy Holly-ish glasses and a beige jacket vest that bespeak a guy seemingly more inclined to grip a pole than hold a brush. (A Clash T-shirt and tats complete the ensemble.)

Charmingly rustic, yet artistically evocative, Caldwell's paintings nearly beckon you to stroll inside them, stretch out, drop a line and doze off until that first telling tug. "I try to keep it relatively simple," he says, "try to refine it so there's just enough information in the background for you to understand it, but focus more on the subject matter in the foreground."

Collectively, this exhibit amounts to extending those opening shots of Andy and Opie ambling toward the pond through an entire episode. Just substitute Caldwell's dad, brother and best bud, the folks in family photos that inspired the works, almost all with one-word titles.

Gentility distinguishes "Prize," as a man in a boat, ballcap on backward, holds up his catch, serene blue lake waters rolling beneath green trees. More action informs "Battle," as a man wielding a net and a boy with a pole pursue unseen prey from onshore, and "Bent," as a fisherman's taut line arches over, hooked into a worthy underwater adversary. And in "Patience," a boy, rendered in bold red, pole stuck out straight, just waits for whatever might, or might not, soon happen. It's life in repose, a celebration of stillness.

"Look at the luminous quality of that figure," says an admiring Patrick Gaffey, Clark County's cultural program supervisor, gazing at the painting. "JW's art is totally accessible, but there's still a lot there. The problem with a lot of simple art is that it gives up all its secrets the first three seconds you look at it. But with JW, you can look at it again and again and there's going to be something there."

Triumph surges through "Ecstasy," in which Caldwell's grinning pal, in shorts, shades and blue San Diego Padres shirt, balances himself in a wide crouch, happily struggling to display his trophy, a huge sailfish. "That's my buddy Dustin in his lucky fishing shirt," Caldwell explains. "We went down to Cabo (San Lucas) for his bachelor party, and he said, 'I don't want strippers, I just want to go fishing.' " Fishing, not stripping? If it didn't trigger a memory of drunken debauchery, it did inspire a vivid portrait.

"Look at the energy exploding out of that picture," Gaffey marvels. "You take one look and feel you know the guy."

A vaguely creepy vibe infuses "Slayed," in which Caldwell's brother shows off the head of a blue shark, post-gutting, the toothy predator's severed noggin wearing an oddly amusing "what-the-hell-just-happened?" look. "That's his first shark," Caldwell says. "They're really fun to catch, they put up a good fight."

But the pastime's bucolic pleasures are best captured in "Eden," a multipaneled, 11-foot-wide panorama recalling family fishing trips to Oregon. "If you do them right, it creates this feeling of relaxation and simultaneous excitement," Caldwell says of similarities between fishing and painting. "When you're painting and it's working right, it's peaceful, but you're excited to see it through to the end. You're at the edge of your seat, like hoping the fish is going to hit."

Now rest your whistlin' pucker, people, and tune up yer pipes. If you were wondering -- c'mon, we know you were -- here are the lyrics to "The Andy Griffith Show" theme. Feel free to sing along:

"Well now take down yer fishin' pole, and meet me at the fishin' hole; we may not get a bite all day but don't you rush away;

"What a great place to rest your bones and mighty fine for skippin' stones; you'll feel fresh as a lemonade a-settin' in the shade;

"Wheeether it's hot, wheeether it's cool, oh what a spot for whistlin' like a fool;

"What a fine day to take a stroll and wander by the fishin' hole; I can't think of a better way to pass the time-o-day."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@review journal.com or 702-383-0256.