“We had the coolest father in the neighborhood. My father’s 88 and has a long white ponytail down his back. He was the coolest guy in town, and had custom made suits when no one was wearing them, and he drove a Corvette his whole life. I learned to drive in my father’s Corvette.”
TODAY
Ed Balcourt adds, “I’m an art teacher today at the senior centers here in Port Washington, New York. Years ago when I lived in Syracuse, I taught art at Syracuse University. Most people go to Florida when they retire, I went to Syracuse. We’re a close family, and I wanted to be up north with my family. Later on when I moved to Florida I taught at a private school for handicapped children, some with Attention Deficit Disorder, and I was able to teach them to use art to help them concentrate on one thing at a time. I didn’t know that art could be used for therapy, but it seemed to work. We did mostly cartoons. It was exciting. “In 2008 I was in Louisiana painting at an Art League and I was voted ‘Master Artist of the Year, 2008.’ They gave me a trophy. Then a year ago I came back to New York. Unfortunately, moving to smaller quarters meant that I had to throw out boxes of my files that I had no room for. Now, I am teaching here at two senior centers and it keeps me occupied. I like teaching. I taught my cover artists, too. I like a strong composition, and if you want to tell a story in art you have to know composition.
“There is something called the ‘point of rest’… it’s like when you throw a ball up in the air—when it reaches the highest point it stops for a split second before coming down. That’s what I call reaching the highest point of emotion when doing portraits. I like to get the highest point of an emotion. When you do action you don’t always use the same principal, for instance, if someone is chopping wood using an ax, when they reach the highest point it’s a dull action—it’s better when they come half way down, you have a better pose. There are no set rules in composition, just do what’s exciting to you. “Recently I entered an art contest here at the Port Washington Art Guild, which is my third show already this year, and a local TV channel interviewed me and I have a display at the Town Hall here. So it is a very exciting time.” —by Gary Lovisi, 2010 I want to thank Ed and his son Barry Balcourt for their kind assistance in the preparation of this article. I also want to thank Bob Maguire’s daughter, Lynn Maguire, as well as Dan Zimmer for their help and support. Gary Lovisi is an Edgar-nominated author for his fiction, and he has also written many articles about paperback cover art, including articles on artists Bob Maguire, Mitchell Hooks, Louis S. Glanzman, and Rudy Nappi that have appeared in previous issues of Illustration. Lovisi’s latest books are The Antique Trader Collectible Paperback Price Guide (Krause Books, 2008), Dames, Dolls & Delinquents (Krause Books 2009) and the forthcoming Bad Girls Need Love Too (Krause Books, 2011). Lovisi also sponsors an annual book collectors show in New York City. You can find out more or contact him via his website at www.gryphonbooks.com
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