Anthony J. Marolda

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I had dabbled with pencil sketch drawing since I was a child. In the fifties, I watched on television an artist named Jon Gnagy who taught sketching. He can still be found in the same shows on Youtube. In the 1960's I started to experiment with oil painting.

About 1965, I went on a business trip to Mexico City and saw a bullfight. When I returned, I decided to do a painting of a bull fighter. I had never done an oil painting before this, nor had I taken any art lessons of any kind (the drawing classes came during the 1990's). I found a poster of a bull fighter and decided to copy it. The result is above. I learned a lot about technique by experimenting with the brushes and the paints. The painting is now framed and hanging on the third floor of our Gloucester house.

I did a few smaller oil paintings over the next few years, but the most ambitious project was the one to the right. It was completed in 1970. It is a full size master study of "Man on Horseback" by the dutch artist, Van Dyck. Again, I learned a lot about painting technique by observing Van Dyck's work and trying to intuit how the artist achieved his effects. This painting used to hang over the fireplace in our Harvard living room. Now, it is moved to a wall on the third floor of the Gloucester house.