Maurice Saxton is a local watercolorist who lives in Mount Airy. When he was a boy, he liked to draw cars, airplanes and ships. His favorite things to draw were Fords from the 1950s because they were boxy rectangle shapes and easy to render.
He also built plastic models of WWII warships and airplanes and then he would try to draw them.
Saxton attended Herring Run Jr. High School in Baltimore and then Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where he took drafting classes.
“It gave me a good foundation in perspective and visualizing objects.” Saxton explained.
He worked as a structural draftsman for a year and a half after he graduated from high school in 1966. Then he was drafted into the military on Christmas Eve 1967 and reported on his birthday in January 1968, so his art was put on hold. The U.S. Army sent him to the University of Baltimore, where he graduated in 1975.
Thirty-five years later, his wife decided Saxton needed something to do in his spare time, so as a birthday present she gave him a weekend at Humblestone Art Center near Warren, Virginia. He spent two days learning and doing quick sketches of buildings and objects with pencil, charcoal and watercolor on the grounds of the arts center. That rekindled Saxton’s interest in drawing.
Saxton traveled the world a lot while working for 21 years as an international affairs officer with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which provides information to the U.S. military for safe navigation through transportation networks. His younger wife liked to explore towers and castles. Saxton, however, preferred sitting in a café with a glass of wine sketching castles.
Saxton started turning those sketches into note cards, which he gave as gifts. He sold some of his note cards to raise money for mission trips to Kenya and Mexico.
When he became a senior citizen, he started taking art classes at Carroll Community College. He took an introduction to drawing and painting class from Sarah Able DeLuca. He continued to take classes on and off for the past 10 years with DeLuca.
“She is good at presenting formal classroom instructions and standing beside me giving me tips on making my paintings better,” Saxton said.
About the same time, he and his wife visited the Highlands Festival in Abington, Virginia. While there, Saxton met a watercolor artist, Janice Beck. She is well known as a “painter of sunny Europe.” She told him about plein air trips she has led since the 1960s with artists. Plein air means to paint outdoors. Beck invited Saxton and his wife to come along.
Saxton said he would go when he retired and in 2015, and he did. He has painted with the group in France, Portugal, Italy and Greece. Next spring, they go to the Netherlands.
Saxton also has taken studio workshops at Beck’s studio in Destin, Florida.
He has taken classes in oils, watercolor and acrylics and likes watercolor best.
“It is the most frustrating but the most enjoyable,” he said. “I like the interaction of the paints on the paper as well as the different colors and effects.”
Saxton is a member of the Carroll County Art Council in Westminster.
“God has wired us all some means to be creative either through painting, photography, written word and music,” Saxton said. “I enjoy combining traveling and painting. When I see something that moves me, I try to capture it.”
As a hobby, Saxton is also a Carroll County beekeeper. He and his wife are looking forward to going to Scotland next year.
Lyndi McNulty is the owner of Gizmo’s Art in Westminster. Her column, An Eye for Art, appears regularly in Life & Times.
