Ed Lucey of Los Gatos will offer his interpretation of the art of painting as the guest demonstrator at the Jan. 13 meeting of the Saratoga Contemporary Artists.
A native of Martinez, Calif., Lucey remembers how, as a young boy, he frequently copied pictures and photographs he saw in magazines and newspapers. He also liked Walter Foster's How to Draw series and went through many of its books. He especially remembers drawing dogs.
"I did it so many times, it's kind of burned into my mind," he recalls, chuckling at the memory of a Labrador retriever he doggedly drew until it became second nature to do so.
"I've always loved to draw and paint. But when you're working, you don't always have the time," he says. He earned a degree in industrial design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., and spent 35 years in the industrial-design business. For the last 25 of those years, he ran his own business in the field.
"It was great; I could do artistic things but still earn a living," says Lucey, whose two sons graduated from Los Gatos High School.
Being his own boss also afforded him time to lecture on industrial design at San Jose State and Stanford universities and at a school in Essen, Germany, where he taught on a Fullbright grant. In between, Lucey found time to paint, but he was unable to plunge deeply into it until his late-1990s retirement. Now he paints full-time.
"Just like writing or any skill, I believe you should do it [painting] every day. Even if you end up throwing it away, there will also be times when something clicks," he says.
Although watercolor is his primary medium, he dabbles in acrylics, which he enjoys because they are more vibrant and more forgiving. He thinks it's too limiting to name a few of his favorite subjects, but says he often finds himself painting landscapes and still-lifes.
"I try to paint common and familiar objects so that the viewer sees them in an uncommon or unfamiliar way--I try to 'glorify the ordinary,' " he says of one of his techniques.
Lucey also challenges himself to portray people, which for him is not as easy as the others. Inspiration usually helps, as was the case with a recent painting based on a picture of a Japanese woman wearing elaborate traditional garb. "I saw this picture and wanted to paint it right away. Sometimes I see something and can't put it down until I paint it," he says.
Whatever the topic, Lucey says he paints best when a certain elusive feeling flows over him. "There's this point in the creative process when things just come together. When that happens, you really can't do anything bad," he explains with a smile, adding that most of his paintings that sell are done during these periods.
Among Lucey's credits are awards from shows with the Los Gatos Art Association, the California Watercolor Association, the Pacific Art League, the Visual Artists' Association at the Triton Museum and at the Santa Clara County Fair. Galleries in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Palo Alto, Walnut Creek, Berkeley and Blackhawk have shown his works.
The Saratoga Contemporary Artists meeting takes place Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Saratoga Library, 13650 Saratoga Ave. The group welcomes anyone interested in art to attend its monthly meetings. For more information about the SCA, call 408.866.1309 or 408.354.9046.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
