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John McCarthy
Blue Tree Wall
2007

About the Item

Diptych. Oil on cradled Board. An Art Autobiography of John McCarthy I am a native of Norfolk, Virginia, where I grew up in a middle to upper-middle class neighborhood attending public schools. Art was always a strong interest in and out of school and my mother arranged for me to have some semi-private art lessons while still in grammar school. My best friend at that age was a genius draftsman of the same age and the two of us entertained ourselves by inventing two neo-Roman nations and then designing their governments, outfitting their soldiers in uniforms, etc. Grammar school art teachers were always very encouraging of my efforts. It was a source of great pride to me that a painting of a football game I did in gouache was displayed in the school library for what seemed to me an eternity. The big drawback to grammar school art from my perspective was that the only painting medium was a horrible gouache powder which the student was required to vainly try to mix with water. A mess! Thus it was a relief whenever my parents would buy me a set of the relatively expensive “Skecthos,” richly oiled crayons not unlike today’s oil sticks which are used expertly by artists such as Herb Jackson. In my latency period I was naturally and sublimatedly driven to focus on the design of what were then known as “dream cars,” called today by Detroit “concept cars.” Boardwalk art shows in nearby Virginia Beach were annual events of great importance to me in my teen years and I was privileged to see there highly textured, richly colored works by what I remember as very competent professional artists. The works in these shows reflected the influence of the abstract expressionist works I was beginning to marvel at in such publications as Time and Life. I was especially drawn to the muscular power of Kline’s work, the sheer audacity of Pollack’s and the energy and humor mixed with dreadfulness of de Kooning’s women. Somehow, I overlooked the glowing, awesomely silent work of Rothko but that oversight was cured when I enrolled in Professor Edgar Thorne’s art history survey course at the University of Virginia. I’ll never forget seeing those Rothko paintings and others in the Phillips on a field trip Thorne led. To the degree I have any ability to see art with discernment it’s likely largely the result of Thorne’s patient tutelage. Following graduation with a degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia and brief period of work to gather tuition funds I enrolled in law school at the University of Richmond where I did well scholastically largely as a result of being sucked into law school’s competitive atmosphere. After law school I entered a private practice that was increasingly centered on criminal and civil rights litigation. I’m still proud that I successfully represented the Gay Alliance of Students in their quest to obtain recognition as a student club by VCU at a time when none of the ACLU’s usual lawyer volunteers would touch the case. After the usual burn-out of an intense criminal litigation practice, I was appointed to a special assistant attorney general by then Attorney General Marshall Coleman and began this public practice doing title searches in the state’s Northern Neck. I learned a lot of social and economic history of that area by just searching legal records. I also began to notice the landscape–something I’d not done much of since my childhood trips to the Blue Ridge. I was later transferred to the Richmond office of the Attorney General’s Office and my practice was then more focused on litigation. General litigation was often a quite educational experience because of the various underlying subject matters and the experts interviewed and deposed. In fact, I cannot think of a better course of study for a general education than such litigation. I began to take up landscape painting in the late eighties after spending about six years photographing it from my rural eastern Piedmont home which I continue to share with my wife of thirty years. I was fortunate enough to enroll in some workshops taught by landscape pastelist and painter Wolf Kahn. His influence on my approach to landscape painting owes much to his maxim to “come slowly and grudgingly to something that resembles Nature.” He’s a remarkably generous teacher. In 1996 I resigned from full-time practice of law although I continued to work in the Attorney Genera’s office on a part-time basis for four more years. In the spring semester of 2006 I re-enrolled in the University of Virginia to audit Dean Dass’ introductory course in printmaking with his kind permission. The stimulus this course provided to me and the extraordinarly patient assistance and encouragement that Dass gave me as a student will always be remembered. He shares with Kahn and Thorne that generosity of spirit every great teacher seems to possess. Today, I pursue landscape painting and printmaking with an equal avidity, believing that each activity enriches the experience of the other. Written by John McCarthy, 2008

Creator:
John McCarthy
Creation Year:
2007
Dimensions:
Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 28 in (71.12 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Wood
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Charlottesville, VA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU127625724802

Blue Tree Wall

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