We are thrilled to collaborate with the Artists Association of Nantucket this year to feature their talented artist members. The AAN is a non-profit organization supporting Nantucket artists, providing educational programs in the arts, and preserving the legacy of Nantucket artists. Visit their website, their gallery at 19 Washington Street, their studio at 24 Amelia Drive, or give them a call at (508) 228-0294.
For the month of August we are pleased to feature Don Van Dyke.
Don Van Dyke
Don’s Statement
“My father was an artist, but the great depression did not make life for an artist easy, nor for most in those days,” says Don Van Dyke. I never did see much of his work except for a couple of pen & inks, which I treasure.” Don’s first attempt at painting prior to living on Nantucket, was in high school when he worked in his town’s annual Halloween window painting contest. After retiring from a successful corporate career and settling on Nantucket year round with his wife Deb, Don was able to discover the island’s art world. It is then that he took a “learn to oil paint” class at the AAN. Painting in this class was so rewarding that “my interest in painting became a passion, which very quickly became an obsession and a necessary part of my new life,” he says.
Don explains, “I paint almost every day. I enjoy the process of creativity, meeting the challenge of transferring thoughts and mental images to canvas. All is well when I paint. I often think of
painting as a source of therapy, keeping me sane in these our tumultuous times.”
Having served as the chair of a few AAN committees, and then as president of the association, Don says, “I have been part of what the AAN offers to our community at large and have been
able to grow in my own painting due to the incredible number and diversity of classes at the AAN, and the highly regarded instructors that AAN is able to attract!” he says. Don regularly
shows his work at the Cecelia Joyce and Seward Johnson Gallery and is thrilled when he hears that someone likes his work. “I used to be introduced as the guy who started such and such
companies, now it’s ‘this is Don Van Dyke, he’s an artist.’ Love it!”
