As much an institution in the Virgin Islands as any artist ever has been, master painter Eric Winter began chronicling community life on canvas soon after arriving on the shores of St. Thomas in 1954, fresh out of college with a degree in fine art.
In an interview with this writer, he once said he didn't consider himself a "success" as an artist – then, in the next breath, added, "I've sold just about everything I've ever painted."
Over the last year or so, Winter has gradually laid his oil brushes to rest as he has struggled with an affliction affecting many – Muhammad Ali, Janet Reno and Michael J. Fox also among them – Parkinson's Disease.
The disease impacts on individuals in different ways. In Winter's case, it has affected his motor skills so that he is unable to get around on his own and has difficulty speaking. His last solo shows were at American Yacht Harbor in 1998 and 1999.
The combination of Winter's status and contributions and his struggle with Parkinson's motivated the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council board to decide to combine its annual meeting this month with a celebration of the artist's life and work at the studio he built a decade ago at his Frenchman's Bay home.
According to Arts Council president Susan Edwards, "Because Eric is no longer able to get around and people are either reluctant to visit him or just plain too busy, we thought we would combine our annual meeting with a party and take it to him."
The event, Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m., is "an opportunity to see his studio, where so many other artists have painted, as well as Eric," she said.
Edwards noted that Randolph Maynard, a board member of the not-for-profit, membership-based Arts Council, is a protegé of Winter's. "He painted with Eric for many years," she said. "Eric did not accept money for this." Also, on Tuesday nights in the 1990s, Winter opened his studio to a figure drawing group. "Again, Eric did not accept money for this," Edwards said. "The only fee was to pay the model."
Earlier, she recalled, Winter had organized life drawing sessions held at longtime friend and fellow artist Ray Miles' studio. Winter's philosophy as a fine artist has been "sharing and trying to reach that critical mass of artistic sensibility and sense of community," she said.
John Jowers, executive director of the government's V.I. Council on the Arts, has known Winter since returning home to St. Thomas from years on the mainland in 1969. The two them were in the core group that joined Rhoda Tillett in organizing the first Arts Alive fair in 1980.
"I think he's one of the finest painters in the Virgin Islands," Jowers said, noting that Winter was one of five artists selected to represent the territory in the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization's Carib Art initiative in the 1990s that opened in Curaçao and toured throughout the Caribbean. "His work has always been extremely well received."
In 1992, competing against 30 other artists from around the nation, Winter was selected by the General Services Administration to create the mandatory "public art" for a new Federal Building annex on St. Thomas. His plan was to paint three small murals – a plan never to be realized because, with Territorial Court assuming greater jurisdiction of criminal cases until then addressed in District Court, the plans for the annex itself were shelved.
In the interview cited earlier, for an article about that commission, Winter noted that he had considerable experience painting murals on the island, although "not many people here today have seen them." He explained that in the 1950s and '60s he was much in demand as a decorator for weekend costume parties friends liked to throw. "In addition to the party itself," he said, "there was two weeks worth of mural-painting parties for everybody else while I worked." The murals had a short wall life, however: "They whited everything over the day after the party."
However, he worked, as always, in oil. So the murals might well be waiting to be rediscovered under layers of latex. "One house has four of them on the living room walls, and the people who live there probably don't even know it," he said.
In the interview, Winter described his subject matter this way: "I paint St. Thomas and the people here, the way things were, and were better, and I hope will one day be again. People here don't talk about today unless it's problems. They talk about the good old days. They can look out the window and see today."
At the time, he was building his new studio at his West Indian-style house in Frenchman's Bay Estate above Limetree – where the Arts Council annual meeting will take place.
Edwards noted that the event is open to the public, not just to current Arts Council members, although only members can take part in the brief business meeting that will include elections to fill board vacancies. "We welcome prospective members and everyone who is interested in Eric's work," she said.
Winter's son, called "young Eric" by family members, recently sent some of his father's work back to St. Thomas from the mainland, and these paintings, as well as recent prints, will be available for purchase. But Edwards emphasized that the main focus of the afternoon is not on selling art but on artists and art lovers paying tribute to a consummate colleague and creative spirit.
She said those wishing to attend Sunday's event can find their way to the Winter home and studio by following the balloons at the turns from Havensight toward and past Antilles School. Or call 774-8900 and leave a message for a callback with verbal directions.
