Although I'm a day late for Father's Day, I want to write about my Dad with today's post because of his influence on my love for art, and specifically, painting. My father has a great appreciation for art and although his day job was in the Finance industry, he had a side business as an antiques dealer when I was growing up and to this day. Before there was eBay, he enjoyed visiting flea markets to scour the shelves in hopes of finding beautiful and valuable pottery, furniture, or paintings. He was self-educated in the art world but has become somewhat of an expert over the years. So, as a child, I distinctly remember going to flea markets with him as he perused the booths, always with the promise that I could pick out and take home a collectible of my own.
Before I was born, he held one of the first auctions of American art pottery. From there, he graduated as a collector of pottery to paintings, prints, sketches, textiles and furniture of the Arts & Crafts movement. Needless to say, I became accustomed to having a revolving museum as a home - always interested to see what new item my dad would bring home, and hear the story about how he found it, who the artist was, and how he would restore it.
So you see, art came naturally to me - my father was an artist himself, though he would never claim to be very good among the great artists who graced the walls of our home - nor would I dare compare myself to them. In his early 20s, he created a 5' x 5' mosaic using 1/2 inch tiles to create an image of his visit to Tangiers, Morocco. For a time it was displayed nicely in the basement of our home, and then upon a move to a new home, it found its way sadly into storage. But, the mosaic and other paintings of his are just beautiful. I sheepishly asked to have the mosaic about 10 years ago and to my surprise, he gave it to me. It now beautifies the master bedroom of my home and is something of a treasure to me.
We have a running joke that I'm going to put a sticker on the back of all the collected art that strikes my eye so that he can leave it to me in his Will. And so, we have this shared vision and love of art. As such, my father offers the best advice and is the first artistic eye I consult when I need an opinion on my own work.
I remember the first 2 paintings I ever did - I may have been about 8 or 9 years old. One was a still life - a bowl of fruit, bananas mostly. The other was a cabin in the snow. I remember him teaching me that shadows in the snow are not really gray, but more of a pastel blue/gray. It was short lessons like this that helped to shape the way I see the world - always noting and appreciating the light and color in my surroundings.
So today, I thank him for his influence, his love, and for introducing art into my life at a young age.
