The Many Faces of artist and painter Carl Thorp

Carl Thorp wanted to be an artist from his earliest memories. His father who was set against his son being an artist was finally convinced to get him some oil paints, but the only colors he got were black and white. Perhaps the start with just black and white are what started Carl Thorp on the road to greatness. His sepia paintings are a delight, but his greatness shows when the color starved boy breaks through with one of the most brilliant color palettes of our age.

At the age of 16 Carl Thorp left his home and headed for California. He studied at the State Teachers College and under Maurice Braun and Alfred Mitchell at the Academy of Fine Arts in San Diego, California. It was here he turned the next roadblock in his life into a stepping stone to greatness. Maurice Braun took a bunch of his brushes and broke them stating “you’ll never be an artist”. The man who learned to paint with only black and white, was not daunted. He took out his pallet knife and brought his paintings to life with depth and style Braun, Mitchel and the rest of the students never developed. His early days were spent traveling California and painting outdoors 1928-1957.

Carl Thorp moved to the French Quarter of New Orleans, where he painted the local scenes for many years. His French Quarter paintings are prized, but perhaps not as much as his paintings of Gloucester and the fishing boats. Each year he would leave New Orleans and go to Rockport and Gloucester Massachusetts and for the summer, stopping at the Greenwich Village, NY art shows on his way in both directions, where he also painted some NY scenes. He was a plein air painter, meaning he worked out doors, and painted at the scene he was depicting.

Carl carried his paintings in his station wagon, in which he often slept. When he was short of funds he would stop by a house and take out his easel, paints and paint a picture of the house and inevitably he was invited in for dinner. He was a very friendly person who married five times. The divorce factor is clearly displayed in his paintings, as every time he was getting a divorce, the skies in his paintings turned dark.

As he aged he moved to Franklinton Louisiana, where he died in 1989. In his last years his paintings lost the texture of his earlier days and sadly in his last few years, arthritis prevented him from holding and guiding the brush. When asked if he had it all to do over, would he change anything his answer was “no, he wouldn't change a thing”. He never made a lot of money, but he never worked a day in his life, he just did what he loved and left the world a treasure trove of great art. Member Society of Western artists and Northern California Artists.

I have been lucky enough to gather a number of his exceptional works and I hope each reader is fortunate enough to someday have one of his works to enjoy or perhaps to see mine in a museum when I join Carl.

Leon S. Gottlieb, a friend.

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