A Brush with Indulgences by
Sandy
Suggitt
A painting of an old service station in Texas hangs in the Austin City Hall, while another, a painting of a large old country church in rural Travis County, Texas, hung in then-Governor Ann Richards' office during her term. Many of the large paintings are rich in Native American symbolism, while others are parodies of famous classics or even Walt Disney characters. His works have been collected by individuals, businesses and museums. Born in El Paso, Schuller is the third generation in his family to own property in Ruidoso. "My granddad started bringing the family here in 1914 and they camped by the big rock at Upper Canyon," he said. The ashes of an uncle and a cousin are scattered there. "There's
hardly a summer I haven't been here," he said.
Schuller took up painting as a hobby in 1967, while working in the petroleum-refining industry and traveling around the world. He taught himself oil painting and then took up other media. In 1985, he was forced to retire, and decided to go back to school and study art. In 1988 he received a bachelor of fine arts degree from University of Texas at Austin, while "mostly indulging myself." In 1991, he received a master of fine arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he "lucked into" a position as caretaker of the estate of deceased sculptor Pompeo Coppini. Schuller, who said he'd like to write a book about Coppini, left much of his own sculptures behind because he doesn't have space for them in his Ruidoso house. He still does some smaller three-dimensional pieces and designs walking sticks for friends and relatives. "My art was influenced by being born in this part of the country," Schuller said, although most of his work is not in the southwestern style and he doesn't do cowboy art. He was also strongly influenced by the work Tom Lea, Peter Hurd, and other regional artists who were prominent in his youth. His art education owes much to his residencies in London, where he lived twice, Madrid, where he lived once, while he traveled North Africa and the Near and Far East. "I was able to see all the major museums, and my office was around the corner from the National Gallery in London," Schuller said. All of the walls of his house are covered with his mostly large paintings, and about 60 other paintings are rolled up for lack of space. Most are oils and acrylics, although he has a significant body of work in watercolor, hand-pulled lithographs, linoleum and wood cuts, and multicolored etchings. For his engravings he used Plexiglas instead of the traditional metal plates because Plexiglas can be engraved more easily. "I feel out of place in the southwest arts scene," Schuller said, adding that he's doing some paintings of the region but he feels this is a sort of regression. "We're lucky to have the Hubbard (Museum of the American West) where artists can show other than southwest themes," he said. Schuller's painting of a derelict service station in Austin, "Coxville," was on exhibit at the Hubbard's recent Free Spirits Juried Fine and Decorative Art Show and Sale. One semester, while he was studying art at University of Texas, he painted windmills all semester because the instructor didn't like them. "I never copied anyone else," he said. "I always do what appeals to me, and that's landscapes, old buildings. ... I do a lot of paintings of things and places that are going to disappear." The prolific painter is now memorializing the old mill on Sudderth, he said, and his next project is the old schoolhouse in Orogrande. Schuller's paintings can be seen at his Web site at |
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ivid
colors and varied themes characterize the
work
of Jack Schuller, although preserving little parish churches and
disintegrating
old buildings is an ongoing theme.
