RMW Ramblings

  Artists of W 18th Street Margo Mavrantonis Johnson Margo Mavrantonis Johnson is a W 18th St artist who is still active, although no longer living on our block.  Margo is retired from her art teaching career but continues to paint professionally.  She paints a variety of subjects, but my favorites are the structures and streetscapes from her frequent European trips, especially to her second home, Greece.  We treasure her Christmas cards which depict a peripatetic snowman who has visited New Castle, Tuscany and Greece, but has yet to experience a meltdown.       Margo has a studio and gallery representation in the Opera House, 304 Delaware  Street in old New Castle, Delaware, and a web site at https://margojohnson.artspan.com/exhibits.html.  There is an extensive gallery of her work there.      

 Artists of W 18th Street John Matassa  Several years after Ralph Scharff moved from 2625 W 18th St another artist and family moved in.  John Matassa wasn't a native of the area, but paintings of the landscape and architecture of the Brandywine Valley were part of his eclectic output.  I remember John more for his drawings than his paintings. He was born and received his art education in New England, but had a career as an art teacher at Wilmington Friends School in parallel to his professional art career. We do not own any of John's art, but a portfolio of detailed Delaware steamboat paintings are posted at https://steamboats.com/museum/matassa1.html.  I have not been able to find the back story for this collection or its present location.  Several are clearly marked "Wilson Line," the Wilmington based steamship line founded in the 1880s and lasting until the 1960s.  Here is the "City of Wilmington."    Hagley Museum owns a John Matassa Draw...

  Views of 18th Street   Our block is the upper end of W 18th St which terminates at Mount Salem Lane. This has given it a bit of an enclosed enclave vibe, where for a time the kids owned the street. And as we've been seeing, several accomplished professional artists have been part of this little community. I have taken this block as a subject for art itself in watercolors, acrylics, Christmas cards, and crafts. Here is a watercolor view of the north side of the block that I painted for a Christmas card.  The houses and the walking couple were painted separately, then scanned and combined digitally. This allowed me to experiment with placement of the figures and alternative foreground subjects like sledders. The Christmas card prompted  J oe Harris, who with his family lived across the street, to suggest that I paint a winter view of their side.  This view is in acrylic on canvasboard.  The most prominent house here is the Harris's, and the car belongs ...

  Artists of W 18th St Richard Layton The Laytons house faced W 19th St but their deep yard, where Dick had created a fairy-tale castle playhouse for their kids, extended to 18th, giving me license to claim Dick as a W 18th St artist. The Laytons were already there when we moved in in 1966.  I had known Dick's wife Debbie in high school. and we quickly became reconnected. Dick attended the Philadelphia College of Art, and studied with Frank Schoonover,  Carolyn Wyeth, and his friend Andrew Wyeth.  I remember Dick being involved with many art projects beyond easel paintings, often sponsored by Wilmington arts patron W. W. "Chick" Laird.  He designed interior panels for the theater that once occupied one floor of Breck's Mill in Henry Clay, and even painted faux windows to cover empty window openings in Walker's Mill across the Brandywine from Breck's. A large project that Dick was commissioned was a set of murals painted for the Dover Room dinning hall in what ...

Victor Letonoff was a graduate of West Point and had a career as an US Army officer. After retiring from his military career, on the strength of the sketch journals he had maintained while in the Army, Victor was admitted to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia where he graduated from the 4-year certificate program.  Afterward Victor and his wife Lacy moved to our block of  W 18th St.  They maintained a second home in Lewes, Delaware where they eventually moved full time. While they were on 18th St I became acquainted with the Letonoffs and assisted Victor with the use of digital graphics.  During the period when I knew him, Victor was painting mostly still lifes of fruits and vegetables in a chiaroscuro style.  We have one hanging in our living room currently.  I  believe Victor fabricated the frame as well.

 Artists of W 18th Street Ralph Scharff   When Mary and I were newly married, living in a trailer while I was in graduate school, she told me about an inspiring art teacher she had at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Ralph Scharff.  Scharff was a rara avis at Ursuline at that time, not a nun, not female, and very outspoken.  Mary described him as an active instructor who fully expressed his opinions. [Ralph had served in World War II in Burma and had suffered from leg injuries later exasperated by diabetes.  He later lost his leg.]    Mary has more stories to share over a drink. A few years later after we had moved back to Wilmington our next door 18th St neighbor died and his wife moved out, renting out the house.  The new residents were Ralph, his wife, Carole, son Sean, and daughter Kevin.  They soon became good friends.  Kevin was near our daughters in age and became second generation friends in our family.  The Scharffs had fam...