Top 10 Art-Life Lessons from My Father
This blog post is dedicated to my father, artist Frank Wright (October 10, 1932 - August 9, 2020).
I am profoundly grateful for the many, many gifts he gave me — curiosity, creativity, intensity, perseverance, humor and a love of family and friends to name a few.
One of my father’s most enduring legacies is his art. In the times we are living in, it is such a pleasure — and relief — to be transported into one of his beautiful landscapes or narrative paintings.
So to honor his memory and provide you with a little artful solace, I thought I would share a bit about my father’s art and his impact on me.
Top 10 Art-Life Lessons from My Father
As an artist-professor, my father loved to teach. Here’s my top 10 list of art-life lessons that he imparted directly or I gleaned over the years. They are not in any particular order or ranking. I hope some are useful for you too!
Delight in light and color.
Draw trees, preferably in all seasons.
Design rules.
Remember, the past is alive. Transform the past into the present and share it.
Be curious and immerse yourself in life’s experiences.
Teach with generosity, passion and purpose.
Create games for their eyes (within your artworks).
Tell stories.
Humor is the best medicine (so don’t take yourself too seriously).
Clean your brushes every day.
Life Lesson Highlights
Frank Wright, Tree in Autumn, 1973, oil on canvas
Lesson #2: Draw trees, preferably in all seasons
Most weekends as a child, my parents and I would frequent Montrose Park, in Washington, DC. I would swing, we’d picnic, and then we’d visit my father’s favorite tree. This painting, Tree in Autumn,1973, is from his series capturing this beloved tree in all seasons. At about 48 inches x 36 inches, these paintings seemed enormous to me as a child. Can you spot little Suzy?
At about this time, my father taught me the Y/V method of drawing trees. l was captivated. It’s just mesmerizing to repeat smaller and smaller Y and V shapes. I didn’t realize it then, but drawing trees really helped with my childhood anxiety.
Want to learn how to make them? Here’s a quick how-to video as part of my DoodleTATEs (doodle-meditations). Give it a whorl!
Lesson #4: Be curious and immerse yourself in life’s experiences
My dad was an interesting blend of artist, historian, and sleuth. He would follow his curiosity and become immersed in a past era or moment. I didn’t see my father’s more traditional research at the Library of Congress or similar. I did experience a quirky, inquisitive father who came home with the Washington, DC city directories for the second half of the 1800s, or decades-worth of bound copies of the Washington Star, when the DC paper went out of business.
And I spent many, many an hour with my mother and father in dusty, musty hole-in-the-wall antique stores. They were not the fancy ones, but the old kind, with stacks of old books to the ceiling, piles of 19th century photographs in shoe boxes, and my father’s favorite - a back room that the owner had barely ever touched. (If you are picking up a bit of tone, you are right. I had much rather have been home playing with my Barbies at the time.)
Lesson #5: Remember, the past is alive
Transform the past into the present and share it
DC has been my family’s hometown since the 1700s. So it’s not a political city for us. It’s home. My father painted many subjects, but his images of Washington, DC reaffirm the living, breathing city and its residents, past and present. “My world is the everyday people, coming and going, who have interplay with the city,” my father said.
Frank Wright, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown in 1884, 1991, oil on canvas
His historical paintings often began with a 19th century photograph that he discovered and got interested in. His painting, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown in 1884, 1991, oil on canvas, was inspired by a small 1884 photograph taken from the Washington Monument to celebrate its completion. He brought the moment to life, as it unfolded. My father's expansive 40 x 60 inch painting takes up your whole field of vision. You literally feel like you are above the capital city looking over contemporary DC with the muddy, swampy pools in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, which would later be part of the National Mall. Look a little farther afield, and an expansive panorama opens up with Pennsylvania Avenue (a dirt road) leading your eyes into Georgetown, with the aqueduct (later Key Bridge) and the Potomac River in the distance.
Frank Wright with master muralist Jan Henryk de Rosen on his birthday, with Bill Reynolds and students
Lesson #6: Teach with generosity, passion and purpose
My father’s tremendous capacity to share artistic experiences with others was such a transformative gift to me. It has fueled my passion and purpose, as an art museum educator, artist, and now, guiding art and wellness programs and coaching.
Frank Wright, Pennsylvania Avenue on a Busy Day in 1882, 1992, oil on canvas
Lesson #7: Create games for their eyes
One of my favorite art-life lessons from my father was this: artists can consciously and strategically make artworks fun to look at. Mind-blowing, yes? In other words, the experience of looking at a painting didn’t have to feel like eating your vegetables. You could design a painting that had games for your eyes!
Some of these visual games were very subtly baked into a painting’s composition. One of my father’s favorite visual game was a more overt “where’s Waldo” type exploration.
Wanna play?
Let’s take a look at my father’s painting Pennsylvania Avenue on a Busy Day in 1882, painted in 1992. With the challenging Washington, DC we are currently experiencing, I hope this dip into DC’s past might provide a tonic.
My father just loved the poignancy, the tenderness, and sometimes the silliness of our everyday, human experiences. So he added lots of little narrative details to keep our eyes engaged and smiles on our faces as we take in one of his paintings.
Start by perusing the painting. Allow your eyes to linger.
Can you find these details —
The roof of the House of Representatives
A clothing shop
Two cyclists
The horse-drawn omnibus headed to the Treasury, War and Navy Department
Three things related to the telegraph
American flags
The carriage closest to the Capitol
The best dressed woman (subjective, you’re call)
Need help? Email me for the answer key at Suzanne@ArtWell4Life.com.
to learn more
If you’d like to explore more about my father’s art and life, here are a few links you might enjoy:
The Washington Post wrote an obit about my dad, “Frank Wright, Washington Artist Who Documented the City Dies at 87,” September 17, 2020.
The Art of Frank Wright website, www.ArtofFrankWright.com, is the most comprehensive online look into my father’s art and career.
Want a Frank Wright painting in your home? Although my father sold most of his artworks, here's a link to those currently available for purchase. The large-scale works will go to museums or public/private institutions.
