Today we’d like to introduce you to Arthur Deatly.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up in Houston in the 69s and 70s, I gravitated to the arts at an early age. I struggled in school with reading eventually diagnosed with Dyslexia I seemed to be able to draw well. My mom would take me to the MFA. I fell in love with it by the time I was 13 I would take the bus down Bissonnette St to the museum on my own. Houston was a bizarre place to grow up and Art both creating and studying it helped me make some since of it. I excelled in drawing and painting winning a scholarship to the Glassell School of Art in the 9th grade. I revived a small scholarship from the Watercolor Society to Kansas City Art Inst. where I revived a BFA in 1981.
After going to Europe for my Grand Tour. I came back to Houston. My father died shortly after my return. My mother and I struggled to keep the family business together but failed. And I worked various jobs as well as Doing post graduate work in the painting Dept. at U H Center campus. I also fell in love got married and when my wife got pregnant, I quit the Graduate program and went to work on sale for 10 miserable years. I did very Little Art during this time although kept a few artist friends the main one being a former professor of mine Richard Stout who kept encouraging me to keep up my art. eventually I got out of sales and got a job substitute teaching forHISD. Went back to UH and got my All Levels Art Cert. I’ve been teaching now for 18 years and am a HS Art teacher in Klein ISD. It was the Summer of 2005 me and another Houston painter Brian Zeibert we’re finishing painting Richard Stouts house when we all decided to go Plein Air painting downtown at James Bute Park.
I by this time had started painting scenes from drawings and photos of my favorite parts of the city. After that day Painting with Richard and Brian I realized if I just went Plein Air Painting every weekend eventually I would have a good body of work. by 2011, I felt I had enough to exhibit. I tried to approach a few galleries that I respected but found the enter view process embarrassing and belittling. I heard about this Art Market in the Height First Saturday Art Market run by Mitch Cohen, an unpretentious kind man who was willing to give me a chance. As my painting has matured and my confidence has grown, I have expanded the depth and breath of my subject matter. What started as mainly Urban Landscapes has grown into a more regional survey of the part of the world I live in and love. From Katy silohs to Smithpoint wetlands. Galveston cemetery to Allan’s Landing there is something about the sublime understated often truncated assemblage of stuff, where Industrial, commercial and residential all compete with nature in this never-ending dance for dominance that make for what I call the beautiful ugly. You just got to look.
Please tell us about your art.
Regional Plein Air paintings of Houston and Surrounding areas
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Keeping at it when seemingly no one cares. Believing in yourself and being monofocused on your work.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8215 Birchglen
Houston Tx 77070 - Website: DeatlyArt.com
- Phone: 713-305-6626
- Email: adeatly@comcast.net
- Instagram: Deatlyarthur
- Facebook: Arthur Deatly
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