It’s been 26 years since David Wescott put pencil to paper for art’s sake. Raising children, building his own plumbing and construction business and losing it during the Great Recession put a dent in both Wescott’s time and his desire to draw.
A show of his work at Piermont Public Library, which includes work done in the 1990s, and more recent work, shows that Wescott’s interest in landscape and the birds that populate it hasn’t really changed.
The exhibition, which features eight pencil drawings and runs through April 25, is part of the library’s effort to “try to get all the artists in the area to put their things forward,” said librarian Margaret Ladd. In fact, Wescott is already scheduled for another show next year.
But he wouldn’t have pushed himself forward if it weren’t for the encouragement of his wife Jody, Wescott said in an interview at the library. They have been married 23 years.
It had been so long since Wescott had made art that he figured maybe it was out of his system. But his interest was renewed by 3D drawing, which Wescott has studied online. 3D drawing is what it sounds like: drawings that look as if they have depth and are three-dimensional. It’s trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) art, which has been around for centuries.
“I’ve always loved drawing, and looking at 3D art on the web, it’s just incredible,” he said in an interview at the library. “Let me try that, put my mind to it.”
That said, Wescott’s drawings aren’t so much 3D as they are finely detailed studies of owls and falcons, a gorilla and landscapes near his Piermont home, where he and his wife have lived since 2000. He works from photographs. He also hand makes the frames from maple, cherry and old barn boards.
Wescott originally moved from Massachusetts to Piermont with his family in 1978, when he was 11. His father also had an artistic streak, drawing cartoons. From 1983 to 1987 Wescott served in the U.S. Navy, which is where he learned the plumbing and welding trade, and was also a fire fighter.
“I got a rep for doing very nice work, meticulous work,” Wescott said.
His attention to detail played a role in his drawing, as well. They may seem completely dissimilar, but designing and building a plumbing system bears some similarity to making and framing his drawings.
His aim with his drawings of raptors, and a portrait of a gorilla, is to achieve verisimilitude and freshness, and catch something of their souls. A portrait of a saw-whet owl, with only its face depicted, gazes fiercely back at the viewer, a splash of yellow in its eyes the only traces of color.
“Like you just caught it in the picture frame. Depth and fine work is the center point of a drawing,” he said.
He uses acid-free cotton paper and drawing pencils. Despite his use of yellow pencil in the saw-whet owl’s eyes, he prefers to work primarily in black and gray tones.
He is concentrating more on his drawing since work-related injuries to his back made it impossible to do plumbing work any longer.
After the financial crash of 2007 and 2008, he went to work as a foreman in the Berlin, N.H., prison, and subsequently at ARC Mechanical in Bradford, Vt. He also moved to Syracuse, N.Y., for eight months for employment, which took him away from his family. It was a tough go, he said. They then moved to Arizona for two years for employment.
An operation at the West Roxbury, Mass., VA Medical Center has restored mobility and greatly reduced the back pain that had made the arduous job of plumbing so difficult. Drawing is now a way to turn his concentration and skills to another medium.
Weston points out the signatures in his drawings, some of which are obvious, most of which are tucked away in places you wouldn’t ordinarily look for them. It requires gazing at the pictures for more time than most of us usually devote to the process.
“That’s what I want,” Wescott said. “I want people to look right into my pictures.”
David Wescott’s drawings are on view at Piermont Public Library through April 25. For further information call the library at 603-272-4967 or go to piermontlibrary.blogspot.com.
Nicola Smith can be reached at mail@nicolasmith.org.