Dale Ziegler isn't interested in pretty. Pretty is commonplace.
No, the watercolor artist, who is having a retrospective of his work at the Lancaster County Art Association, wants you to notice things you might otherwise pass by.
"I look for things other people don't see," says Ziegler. "There are enough ugly things in the world. I want to paint beautiful things."
That is something Ziegler has been doing for more than 60 years.
The retrospective, which opens with an artist's reception Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., goes back to Ziegler's art school days after World War II at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) and up to the present day.
At 83, Ziegler, who now lives at Willow Valley, still paints. Every day if he can.
"I could draw before I could write," Ziegler recalls with a laugh.
He grew up in Red Lion and while his mother bought him a set of oil paints when he was in grade school, there really wasn't anywhere for him to study when he was a child.
But it never stopped him.
He got drafted right out of high school and was sent to Saipan, in the Pacific.
Even then, he had his paints with him and remembers making Christmas cards for his lieutenant.
He thought he'd be an art teacher.
"Growing up in the Depression, the idea was to make a living," he says. "But after my first year, I realized I could make a living as an artist."
And so he did.
He started at a small company called York Craft, which designed greeting cards and gifts.
Then he moved over to R.R. Donnelly, where he worked as a graphic artist.
"I learned an awful lot about composition being a graphic artist, which helped me with my fine art," he says.
Ziegler and his wife, Faye, along with their two sons, moved to New Canaan, Conn. when he took a job with the U.S. Tobacco Co., where he worked as the creative director.
About 20 years ago, Ziegler retired and he knew he wanted to come back to Lancaster.
Retirement meant he could paint full time.
Ziegler always liked painting outside because it meant painting quickly and spontaneously.
He still remembers outings with friends and family that have become immortalized in a painting from many years ago.
One of his favorites is a scene of a large crane at Port Deposit, where Ziegler's brother and a friend went to fish and Ziegler went to paint. He was still in college and the piece was accepted into a show at the National Academy of Design.
"I was thrilled," he remembers with a smile.
"I like paintings that look like they were easy to do, even if they weren't," Ziegler says. "That confidence is important."
Ziegler has painted in other media, but always goes back to watercolor and is a signature member of the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society and an honorary life member of both the Baltimore Watercolor Society and the Philadelphia Water Color Society.
"You can catch a fleeting moment with watercolor," he says,
Illnesses, including a spinal injury from years earlier, and Parkinson's, with which he was diagnosed several years ago, keep Ziegler from painting outside.
But happily, Parkinson's does not prevent Ziegler from painting.
"It took time to learn to paint in a studio," he says. "I tend to tighten up but I want to keep that fresh, free look."
There can be advantages to working inside.
"You tend to find your own light source when you work in the studio," he says. "So your work can be more dramatic. And you can be a little more creative."
"I think it's important to paint what you know," he says. "And to plan. With watercolor, you have to know before you start. There is a lot of negative space and you have to plan how to use it."
Ziegler says being away from Lancaster County for 20 years made him appreciate the beauty here.
Not the prettiness, but the detailed beauty that awaits an artist's eye.
Lancaster County Art Association"Sixty Years of Painting" by Dale Ziegler"Alchemy" by Danielle PetersOpening reception, Sun. 1-5 p.m.Cont. through April 24Wed.-Sun. 1-5 p.m. Free149 Precision Ave., Strasburg687-7061. www.lcaaonline.org.CONTACT US:
jholahan@LNPnews.com or 481-6016
