By Ann Nichols
Staff Writer
By age 12, Wayne Summerlin felt that he had learned what he needed to know to become a successful artist.
“We were living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I attended Academia Dona Quella, a private art academy, ” he said.
The young Summerlin had enrolled because he wanted to learn to paint, but the instructor told him that he would have to learn to draw first.
“I realized in a few years that she was right,” he said. “You have to be able to draw before you can paint because you have to have those tools.”
For six months, he drew from plaster casts. The three years of training in the classical tradition provided him with the foundation to have a successful career in art.
Now, at age 86, he continues to paint, sculpt and take photographs professionally.
“I believe I’m the oldest artist in Chattanooga,” he said.
After moving back to the United States when he was 12 years old and completing his education, he set up a professional photography studio. In the 1950s, he began designing the window displays for Loveman’s and later for Sears, Roebuck & Co. He retired from Sears in 1985. Throughout his career, he continued to make art.
His earliest work was hard-edge realism and surrealism. Then he became inspired by Oriental art and began doing watercolors. Figurative paintings, influenced by Modigliani, followed.
Many of these past works, as well as Summerlin’s most recent paintings, which he calls “Art Deco Suite: The Boardwalk,” are on display at Area 61 Gallery.
He cites Cezanne as his favorite artist and said Picasso did his best work before 1935. Bracque is another favorite, as well as the Impressionists “because they broke the mold.”
“I don’t care much for Matisse or the Earthworks Movement or pure abstraction,” he said. “When you abstract something too much, you throw away all your tools of learning.”
Summerlin admits he works only when he is in the mood because, otherwise, it’s a waste of good materials, he said. When he isn’t painting, sculpting or taking photographs, he is reading a book from his extensive library of art history.
“If you don’t continue to grow, you die,” he said.
Area 61 Gallery, 61 E. Main St., is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Call 883-6459.
Contact Ann Nichols at annsnichols@aol.com.