The Official Home of Darren McGrath |
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Painting My Way
Through a Blizzard !!!
How my interest in art began 45 years ago !
- My Interest in drawing and painting came to me early in life . As an only child growing up in
I would spend hours sitting at the kitchen table drawing and painting as the snow blew past the window like sand in an hour glass . Soon evening would fall , my Dad would come home from work and I knew then it was supper time and my time was up using the kitchen as my art studio . Sadly as the snow melted , so did my interest in art . Video games - arcade rooms and just hanging out with my friends left no time to create . In 1985 I started my Freshmen year of high school at Columbus Eastmoor, the same high school as two time Heisman trophy winner Archie Griffin had attended 15 years earlier but , the excitement wasn't really there , my Mother had been sick and at times was too weak to leave her room , she had been diagnosed with cancer . With the situation I was in at the time , I couldn't do the things normal teenagers did such as hang out with friends or vandalize the town . I spent many hours - days sitting in silence since I had to be able to hear if my Mom needed anything . Other then sports , the one television show I could watch and not need sound was an art show called " The Magic of Oil Painting " . The artist was William "Bill" Alexander who is probably known better today as the man who taught Bob Ross how to paint happy clouds then his own art show . I also began taking an art class that year and along with it came homework , yes , homework . I had three drawings due every Monday that had to be done on my own time . It was those homework assignments that brought back the interest and even more important , made me realize the power of art . For hours I would sit , draw and escape the real world .
It was a trip to visit my Mom in the hospital that I noticed how bare her side of the room was , this inspired me to draw flowers as my next homework assignment . There was just one problem though , my drawings for school were all done in pencil and I needed some color if those flowers were going to cheer her up . I quickly went to the kitchen hutch which was where all my paints were kept just seven years before during the blizzard years . Pulling out the trays of paint was like seeing and old friend but , it made me realize just how long it had been when I popped the lid to only find harden paint . It was in away , very symbolic of my art in general leading up to this point .
I sat disappointed when I remembered one other source I could turn to , my old forbidden oil and soft pastels from Easter past . After several attempts , my masterpiece at the time was completed and along with it , loud music and my happy dance !
When my Mom finally made it home , the kitchen table was once again covered with art and in the center was my soft pastel tulips . Over 30 years later and I can still see her face at that moment . On the back of the flowers I had signed it , " You can take these flowers anywhere , they are invincible and will NEVER DIE " which is the reason she hated having flowers in her hospital room .
In early January of '86 , things began to take a turn for the worse and during a phone call , I was asked to keep several promises . One promise was easy to keep , I would never stop drawing and painting . Just a couple weeks later , my Mom passed away.
While that promise seems easy to keep , it's sometimes a real challenge . For several years my art struggled with only colored pencil drawings . One of those drawings would go on to be the first blue ribbon winner ever at my new High School .
Christmas 1989 , my Dad gave me a present and a challenge to master them , the package was a box of soft pastels .Soft pastels weren't new to me , as a kid I used them along with tons of chalk . The following day I gave them a shot and after about an hour , boxed them back up and began using my colored pencils again . I had soft pastel all over the place including all over my face ! I wouldn't touch them again until April 14th , 1990 when I found this image of a grist mill that inspired me to paint .
Even with the success of the mill painting , I was still trying to find myself as an artist . In June of that year , I bought a master set of Bob Ross paints . Mastering the wet on wet technique was fun and at times a challenge and I have no idea how much money I raised giving all those paintings away to charity events . In 2010 , one of my happy paintings even made it into the Brush Stroke magazine which was produced by Bob Ross Inc.
From 1986 through 2016 , 30 years if you're counting , I struggled finding the one medium that was truly me . By this time I had tried acrylics , oils and soft pastels , not to mention pencil and charcoal .
With the destruction of one thing , brought the re-birth of another . In late September of 2016 , fire destroyed a very old grand stand at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds in Lancaster , Ohio . The next day I decided to pay tribute to the old structure (really I was just looking for something to do) and do a painting of it in soft pastel . Once completed , I posted it on a local Facebook group which it received over 500 likes in one night . I knew then , soft pastel was going to be my medium of choice .
July of 2019 I was accepted into the Pastel Society of America , which just may be the greatest single accomplishment of my artistic life , well until 2020 when I officially have become a member of The Hocking Hils Artist & Craftsmen Association .
Since those painting days during the blizzard of 78 , my art has had it's ups and downs , it's success and failures but watching several of my paintings being auctioned off at the Clarissa Nixon Benefit in 2006 brought everything full circle . It was the first time I had done anything like that . The first painting started off slow in bidding but then had quickly grown to a bid of $200 .
Over the years I continue to donate to different benefits but none of the paintings meant as much as in August of 2014 when I painted a picture of Clarissa herself which went for a bid of $1,000 .
NOT one time during any of these auctions have I not sat there thinking back to 1985 , when art truly became a part of who I am today while painting flowers for my Mom . The fact the flowers were not part of her personal possessions and never seen again makes me hope she took them with her .
Even more , the memories of my mom mixing my paints at the kitchen sink , hanging my masterpieces up on the kitchen walls and painting my way through a
BLIZZARD !
This website and and all the art inside it is dedicated to my Mom and Dad , without those crayons , I wouldn't be able to do what I do today . I will never need a job title or status approval from anyone to feel successful .
To be Continued....Paint On !
2014 - 9th Annual Clarissa Nixon Benefit , Corning , Ohio
I'm not really sure how many paintings I have donated over the years to Clarissa's benefit but none of them meant as much as this years painting of Clarissa herself .
The benefit is held annually in memory of Clarissa Nixon who told her dad that if the town had a benefit for her , they must do one every year for a child who is sick .
I'm not really sure how many paintings I have donated over the years to Clarissa's benefit but none of them meant as much as this years painting of Clarissa herself .
The benefit is held annually in memory of Clarissa Nixon who told her dad that if the town had a benefit for her , they must do one every year for a child who is sick .
