Grandma Moses started painting at age 78, and “Papa” McDonald got into sculpting at age 85.
This wasn’t Stuart McDonald’s original plan when he and his wife, Ann, 77, moved to Loveland in June 2015. They’d come to the Sweetheart City to avoid showing favoritism to their children who lived in Fort Collins and Longmont.
Unaware Loveland is the sculpture capital of America, they explored their neighborhood and found they lived around the corner from the Columbine Gallery and three blocks from Benson Park Sculpture Garden.
“We fell in love with sculpture and wanted to learn the history of the garden and meet the founders,” Stuart said. “It’s been just wonderful. Everyone that I met has been so hospitable, so affable and so helpful.”
The McDonalds began their exploration of the art community by meeting three of the five founders of the garden, George Lundeen, Dan Ostermiller and George Walbye. They met other artists and art leaders, toured foundries and visited local art exhibits, soon inspired to begin collecting sculptures and paintings to display in their home and yard.
Stuart felt particularly inspired by Walbye, who like Stuart did not have any formal training in sculpture.
Over lunch with Victor Issa, also a sculptor that sold him a piece, Stuart said he’d like to try sculpting, and the next day Issa showed up at the McDonalds’ house. He’d brought two tables of clay, tools and directions to the Sculpture Depot with the words, “You’re an artist! Go for it.”
That afternoon — he remembers the day, May 17, 2016 — Stuart made his first trip to the depot and began sculpting. By the end of the year, he had completed and cast seven pieces.
“It’s all been a learning experience for me starting something new,” Stuart said. “It’s given me a fuller appreciation of all that’s gone into sculpting.”
Stuart took awhile deciding what to make for his first piece, he said. He recalled in 1955 building a Santa snowman in his front yard for his three kids from his first marriage — he and Ann were both widowed and married in 2003. He used the memory as inspiration and created a bronze sculpture of a Santa bending his knees, leaning back and belting out “Ho, Ho, Ho,” the name of the piece.
“Some say it’s a self-portrait. Maybe it is,” Stuart said. “I’m kind of a jolly fat man with a white beard.”
Stuart had four pieces cast from the original to give to Ann and his children. He created other sculptures, all maquette-sized, of figures based on current events, such as a tribute to Mohammed Ali’s life called “The Greatest” and the opening of the Olympic Games with “The Girl From Ipanema.”
“It’s really inspiring for him to be able to get into sculpture and make a lot of friends,” Lundeen said. “It goes to show you if you have the desire — age enters into it — but if you can do it, do it.”
Lundeen said Stuart’s style is a little “different.”
“It has a comical twist to it,” Lundeen said. “It’s different work. It’s unusual, and it’s interesting. … It appeals to a lot of people, and I hope he can get into some galleries.”
Stuart worked as a cartoonist for six years in the 1960s for the Grand Forks Herald, among his many jobs. He started out as the owner of a North Dakota menswear store, which he inherited from his father at age 18. He also served two terms in the North Dakota House of Representatives and worked in public affairs for the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, retiring at age 70.
“To the serious artist, cartooning is not serious,” Stuart said, adding that drawing cartoons is considered to be “art in a hurry.” “To the artist, the cartoon is the beginning. They start with it and build from there.”
Stuart likes seeing each of his sculptures evolve as he works through the steps of the casting process. He does the maquette step and hires out the other steps from molding, wax pouring and bronze pouring, he said.
“I’m proud of them,” Stuart said. “They show a degree of progress with each of them,” he said.
“At age almost 86 to get enthusiastic about anything is a gift from God. … You’re never too old to learn something new.”
Ann admires that Stuart is self-taught and has enjoyed watching him improve in his art, she said.
“I’m not surprised at all that he can do so well, but I can’t imagine coming from a cartoonist to a sculptor without a lesson,” Ann said. “That’s amazing to me.”
For more information about McDonald’s art, call him at 303-949-4718.
