Behind the Cover: Ardis Hughes
Aug. 27th, 2010 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviews_and_ramblingsArdis Hughes passed away on Jan. 4, 2009, one day after his 97th birthday. He was born on Jan. 3, 1912, in Rhinebeck, N.Y. From an early age he was absorbed in art. Upon graduation from Pratt Institute in 1934 he went to work for the Esquire publications. Serving in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946 and based in Washington, D.C., he created war bond posters, among other assignments. The Army also sent him to Paris. His pictorial documentation of the life of a soldier based there is in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University. War bond posters are also in the New York State Military Museum.
After a career in commercial art during which he apprenticed with Saul Tepper, he devoted himself to fine art, winning many prestigious awards, among them the gold medal in watercolor from the National Arts Club. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society. As an artist he traveled widely, always including Paris in his itinerary. For many years he spent the winters in Spain and the summers in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. For the past 10 years he had been wintering in St. Augustine, where he could be seen painting the buildings and scenes that made the city so famous.
A winter resident in the Nation's Oldest City, Hughes and his business manager, Phyllis Cook, whom he had known for years, spent six months in St. Augustine and six in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He spent almost every day of his six months St. Augustine sketching faces. "I go to the cafe there (at Wal-Mart) and people are sitting there. They don't even know I'm doing them. Everybody's different." He spent four to five hours each day there, and enjoyed lunch, usually soup. When he was not at Wal-Mart, he could be found at Barnes & Noble doing the same thing. He did pen and ink drawings, and then adds color when he got home, using his trusty crayons.
One of his most famous was a poster carrying the message "War bonds are cheaper than wooden crosses." The poster depicted a soldier dragging a cross across a field. The model for the soldier was someone Hughes had seen when the man, John Reiter, was on Military Police detail at the White House. Serving as the model for the poster, turned out to be the highlight of his life, according to Reiter's family. The framed poster hung in Reiter's bedroom, Hughes was told, and when Reiter died in 2002, the family hung the poster at the funeral home.
Hughes, who spent 50 to 60 years living in New York City, was first employed by Esquire Magazine right out of the Pratt Institute. Later his career would take him to ad agencies and then he became a free lancer.
At one point in his career he and Joseph Heller, author of "Catch 22" worked together. Heller did copy and "I did the drawings."
In addition to his work as a free lancer, Hughes spent every evening at the Art Students League, "just sketching. I did that for 40 years, because I love to draw."
In Saratoga Springs, his favorite sketching areas were Starbucks and the library. The sketching, Hughes suggested, was one thing that kept him young. That, he quipped, "and the quart of whiskey and three packs of cigarettes a day," then admitted he didn't smoke and an occasional glass of wine was the only alcohol he consumed. Hughes attributed his long life to "an interest. I wake up, and I have an interest. I think that's very important." He went out each day to sketch, because "I don't want to stay here," he said of his St. Augustine home. At Wal-Mart, "they don't charge me anything. I'm a tightwad, you know."
After a career in commercial art during which he apprenticed with Saul Tepper, he devoted himself to fine art, winning many prestigious awards, among them the gold medal in watercolor from the National Arts Club. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society. As an artist he traveled widely, always including Paris in his itinerary. For many years he spent the winters in Spain and the summers in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. For the past 10 years he had been wintering in St. Augustine, where he could be seen painting the buildings and scenes that made the city so famous.
A winter resident in the Nation's Oldest City, Hughes and his business manager, Phyllis Cook, whom he had known for years, spent six months in St. Augustine and six in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He spent almost every day of his six months St. Augustine sketching faces. "I go to the cafe there (at Wal-Mart) and people are sitting there. They don't even know I'm doing them. Everybody's different." He spent four to five hours each day there, and enjoyed lunch, usually soup. When he was not at Wal-Mart, he could be found at Barnes & Noble doing the same thing. He did pen and ink drawings, and then adds color when he got home, using his trusty crayons.
One of his most famous was a poster carrying the message "War bonds are cheaper than wooden crosses." The poster depicted a soldier dragging a cross across a field. The model for the soldier was someone Hughes had seen when the man, John Reiter, was on Military Police detail at the White House. Serving as the model for the poster, turned out to be the highlight of his life, according to Reiter's family. The framed poster hung in Reiter's bedroom, Hughes was told, and when Reiter died in 2002, the family hung the poster at the funeral home.
Hughes, who spent 50 to 60 years living in New York City, was first employed by Esquire Magazine right out of the Pratt Institute. Later his career would take him to ad agencies and then he became a free lancer.
At one point in his career he and Joseph Heller, author of "Catch 22" worked together. Heller did copy and "I did the drawings."
In addition to his work as a free lancer, Hughes spent every evening at the Art Students League, "just sketching. I did that for 40 years, because I love to draw."
In Saratoga Springs, his favorite sketching areas were Starbucks and the library. The sketching, Hughes suggested, was one thing that kept him young. That, he quipped, "and the quart of whiskey and three packs of cigarettes a day," then admitted he didn't smoke and an occasional glass of wine was the only alcohol he consumed. Hughes attributed his long life to "an interest. I wake up, and I have an interest. I think that's very important." He went out each day to sketch, because "I don't want to stay here," he said of his St. Augustine home. At Wal-Mart, "they don't charge me anything. I'm a tightwad, you know."
