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CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) — If you live in Washington, there's a good chance you have already seen one Lewis County resident's artwork.
In his career spanning about six decades, Don Winsor designed the Washington State Seal and other state seals, and lent his artistic skill to projects for the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, zoos, public murals and classrooms in western Washington, the Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/1U6OYX0).
"I even did the governor's Christmas cards for three years," he said.
Winsor remembers most of his projects, although the date they were completed sometimes eludes him.
"My age kills my memory a bit," he said.
At 84, Winsor is every bit as prolific of an artist as he was in the mid-1950s as Washington State's art director.
He exhibited the best of his art April 22-23 during Olympia's Spring Arts Walk at Don's Camera, also called Digital Imaging Northwest.
Today, Winsor still spends much of his time making art, whether he's designing a new mural for the city of Shelton, where he went to high school, painting with oil or acrylic in his studio, or creating detailed and high-contrast portraits on scratchboards.
"They're a clay board," he said. "There's a white lime coating underneath . and they put black India ink on top."
Winsor carefully scratches away the top layer of ink with a dental pick while wearing magnifying glasses. When the ink is scratched away, the brilliant white lime creates luminous images.
The art form leaves little room for error.
"You're allowed one mistake," he said.
A fine black pen can sometimes cover an error, but it isn't a sure bet.
"If you do it really carefully, you can get away with it," he said. "If you don't, it's ruined. I've ruined quite a few."
Winsor's intricate, detailed artwork hides the fact that he has been blind in one eye for 40 years — half his life and much of his career as a professional artist.
Winsor said he was fixing the brakes on his car one day when he thought he got something in his eye. Over the course of the day, his vision became worse and worse. His doctor later confirmed he actually had a major thrombosis, a formation of a blood clot in a blood vessel, leaving him completely blind in one eye.
"I used to scare the wits out of my poor wife driving," he said.
It took Winsor a long time and hard work to learn to compensate for his new lack of depth-perception in both his daily life and in his art.
"I've been a one-eyed artist for many years," he said. "Many people who have handicaps like that really have to fight to overcome them. It really did change my life."
Winsor first became interested in art when he was young. He was born in Shelton, but moved to Calgary, Alberta, with his family at a young age.
"I got into art in Calgary," he said.
His teachers thought his twin sister was the gifted sibling.
"She had all the brains," Winsor said. "All I did was . my teacher called it doodling. I got in trouble for it quite a bit."
Winsor went back to Shelton to live with an aunt and uncle after learning that his school in Calgary had no art classes for eighth- and ninth-grade students. Shelton, however, had a good art program, he said.
Winsor spent four years in the Navy Reserve during the Korean War. When he got back, he studied art at Edison Technical School, now Seattle Central Community College, in Seattle. He later worked at Boeing on top-secret Naval intelligence drawings.
He started working with a fellow artist in Olympia, and in the mid-1950s, became the art director for the state of Washington, a job he held for 15 years.
During that time, he designed the Washington State Seal and seals and logos for a number of other agencies, including the Washington State Patrol, he said.
He taught art at Shelton, Olympic and Capital high schools, did a series of paintings of salmon for the Washington State Department of Fisheries, and once won a contract with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to paint Pacific salmon in all of their stages of life. His family also operated a porcelain enamel business in Olympia, specializing in long-lasting signs and monuments, among other products, with contracts for local companies as well as Disney.
Winsor finally retired six or seven years ago.
"Actually, I'm only semi-retired because I'm still doing a lot of work," he said.
All of Winsor's paintings and scratchboard art are taken from photos, he said. In the past 15 years, he's honed his skills using a number of subjects, and now often scratches portraits of animals for zoos, such as Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, or organizations such as Wolf Haven International in Tenino. He also often makes portraits of family dogs for clients.
"I enjoy doing it," he said. "Since I lost my wife (Marilyn) a couple years ago, it's something to keep busy."
Winsor's upstairs studio is filled to the rafters with examples of his work, from a painted portrait of John F. Kennedy to a gold owl on a porcelain dish. He paints photo-realistic landscapes, animals and people, and said some of his favorite subjects are his children and grandchildren.
He still finds time to teach his craft, mostly to children.
"I do enjoy teaching," he said, adding that he laments the state of art education in elementary and high schools.
"It's a shame a lot of kids have a natural inclination, a natural talent for it — it isn't being developed," he said. "I know, when I go to these schools . I get letters from kids and they're amazing."
Recently, he taught students how to do scratchboard art.
"It's something I think is really rewarding — the teaching part of it," he said. "I'll probably be doing it until I can't pick up a pen anymore or a pencil or a paintbrush."
In the near future, Winsor plans to scope out some outdoor locations in the area where he can set up an easel and spend time painting in nature. He particularly wants to paint while floating in a boat on Mayfield Lake.
He also hopes to write more poetry, another of his many interests, and write and illustrate children's books.
Once, while at an airport, Winsor said he checked out the children's book section at a shop and was not impressed.
"I thought, 'My goodness, we should be able to do better than that,'" he said. "It's just one of those things you hope you have time to do."
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Information from: The Chronicle, http://www.chronline.com
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