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The Ever-Changing Character Of Joseph Delaney's Brushwork
(with cut)
BY JAN HOWARD
Joseph Delaney went from painting houses for a living to painting canvases for
a pastime.
Mr Delaney, who was a house painter for 65 years, turned to watercolors three
years ago, bringing to fruition a dream he had for a number of years.
Mr Delaney said his vocation has helped him with his avocation. He said it
"helps a little bit in this work on how to use colors."
Mr Delaney, who, it is difficult to believe, will be 96 on October 25, attends
art classes at the senior centers in Sandy Hook and Brookfield.
His land and seascapes in watercolors and acrylics will be part of an exhibit
by the Newtown Senior Center art class, which is taught by Terry Gunger, in
the C.H. Booth Library's meeting room October 17-23.
The exhibit will also feature works by art class members Bernadette Bono,
Marti Jones, Bea Piscara, Helen Walko and Boblyn White.
Mr Delaney's artwork has earned him four blue ribbons at shows in
Pennsylvania, Bethel and Newtown. His painting of a red barn that won him a
blue in Pennsylvania is one of several works by seniors that hang on the
senior center wall.
His senior center instructor praised her student's work.
"He's a remarkably talented man. He does beautiful paintings," Ms Gunger said.
"He was one of the first students we had."
"He's great with barns and nautical subjects," Mrs Bono added.
Mr Delaney said he has a plan for a new innovation that "will be a humdinger,"
for the library show. He plans to install a blinking light in his painting of
a lighthouse. He is also submitting a three-dimensional painting of the moon
painted on plexiglass.
He was equivocal about the result, saying, "It may work, it may not."
He plans on putting at least five paintings in the library show, and he has
plenty of them to choose from.
"I have 40 or 50 paintings, and I must have given 30 away," Mr Delaney said.
A man of many talents, Mr Delaney makes frames for his paintings from
225-year-old barn wood that comes from Presque Isle, Maine. He also makes
plexiglass frames for small photographs and gives them away.
"I'm a jack of all trades. I do everything," he said.
Mr Delaney moved to Newtown 31 years ago from Long Island when he was 65.
"I was going to retire, but I went back to painting houses until I was 83," he
said.
About ten years ago he became interested in learning more about art and
enrolled in a class offered through Continuing Education at Newtown High
School. However, he had to drop out when his wife suffered a stroke. They had
been married for 65 years when she died three years ago. During the eight
years he took care of her, he said, "I didn't touch a brush."
He's making up for it now. He joined the senior center art class three years
ago to fulfill his dream of painting canvases.
"When my wife died, I figured I had to do something," he said.
He proudly shows a small album of photographs of his paintings. He has sold
two of his works, "but mostly I just give them away," he said.
He said his favorite work is one of a boat that he painted for a local
cardiologist. "He thinks the world of it. He keeps it by his desk to show
people," Mr Delaney said.
His works consist mostly of landscapes and seascapes, with barns and
lighthouses as recurring themes. He has also painted the well-known scene of
the Newtown flagpole and church steeples as seen from Castle Hill Road.
He works on his paintings at home and "straightens out the mistakes" during
the two-hour class each Monday at the senior center, Mr Delaney said.
The time he spends on a painting varies, he said. Though he never works more
than a half-hour at a time on a painting, he often does two at a time.
He likes to wait for the paint to dry before continuing to work because the
colors often change, he said, noting, "I might find out the color isn't
right."