Sebastian artist and City Council member Richard Gillmor and wife Judy lived for 27 years in Key Largo, an iconic place, thanks in part to Hemingway, Bogie and Bacall.
It’s also a destination for artists who travel from far and wide to capture its shimmering waters, brilliant sunsets and tropical beauty. Ironically, though, Gillmor did very little painting during that time. Locals know that living in the Keys is expensive and, “we had to make a living.”
Gillmor majored in Fine Art at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. With an art degree, Gillmor knew he’d probably have to “do something else,” which turned out to be the insurance business. The couple met while he was still at university and she was teaching at a nearby elementary school. They married in 1968 and, before long, found themselves starting an almost three-decade adventure in Florida’s Upper Keys.
It wasn’t until he retired from the insurance business and moved north that he picked up a brush again. Why Sebastian? In 2001, Richard and Judy were headed north along U.S. 1 and stopped in Sebastian for a bite to eat at a riverside restaurant that is now Mulligan’s. They liked the town right away. As they were eating, a guy zipped up to the restaurant’s dock on a jet ski and commented that Sebastian felt “just like the Keys did back in the ‘70s.” It seemed like a sign to the Gillmors.
When they finally did retire, in 2004, they remembered the little town that felt like the Keys. “It was 10 years ago on Aug. 12,” said Gillmor, “that we moved up. I was pulling a U-Haul and Judy was driving our car.” It was the day Tropical Storm Bonnie hit Florida, the first of the state’s storm landfalls in the notorious 2004 hurricane season.
“We were supposed to close on our house on Friday the 13th but we couldn’t because Hurricane Charley was due to hit the next day.” Ultimately, the storms moved out and the Gillmors moved in. And Richard Gillmor got back into his art.
“I’ve been interested in art all my life,” Gillmor says. “My dad was an artist. He always liked to draw and he painted from an early age. It was the same with me.”
Gillmor loved Monet and Cezanne and “the play of light on water.” As a young man, he visited the Chicago Institute of Art and was transfixed by Monet’s famous Water Lilies, the scene with the bridge, depicting Monet’s own pond and garden. “I discovered, standing 21 feet from the painting and squinting, the scene just popped, as if you were looking at a photograph.” Even then, he had an artist’s heart.
For his own work, Gillmor prefers “the process” that oils require, finding he can more easily make changes and manipulate the paint when it hasn’t completely dried. “You can go back in the next day and still work with it. With (faster-drying acrylics), you have to paint over it.” He does, occasionally, employ both in a work. When drawing, he may choose pen, pencil, pastels, charcoal or ink.
Gillmor’s favorite subject is “anything with water.” It’s no surprise that the lagoon is a frequent subject, and some of his best works depict local waterways, often with palms and native plants along their banks. He acknowledges that he does quite a lot of drawing – “just for fun – boats, airplanes mostly.” But he only grins when asked whether any doodling occurs during various city council meetings he has occasion to attend.
Soon after settling in Sebastian, Gillmor joined the Sebastian River Art Club and became a driving force in the club’s finding its current home. At that time, the buildings which now nicely house the Art Center and the Senior Center, both city-owned, were in bad shape and scheduled for demolition.
Gillmor approached the city with a proposal to save and refurbish one of the buildings, turning it into a home for the Art Club/Art Center. The City agreed. The bones of the building were good, and the Art Club members and others in the community contributed many volunteer hours of sweat equity.
With donations from the community, the building was transformed into a roomy, centrally located, versatile and much used center for Art Club meetings, classes, shows and gallery exhibits. The works of Club members are on display in the Art Center’s sleekly refurbished gallery area. Although sales are not solicited and no prices are displayed, pretty much everything is available – one only need inquire.
Gillmor was club president for two years and also served as vice-president. He chaired the popular Art in Public Places project, which has provided works for the Sebastian City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, the North County Library, Inlet Wines and the County Courthouse in Vero Beach. For the Working Waterfront, the club provided an exhibit/competition called Fantastic Fakes, for which members copied works by their favorite Old Masters. Gillmor chose Monet’s Water Lilies. And won.
Of the several art classes offered by the Art Club, Gillmor teaches a drawing class, whenever people express an interest. “I usually set up some sort of still-life. They can use pencil, charcoal, pastels – whatever they choose.”
With a practical candor, he says, “Art can be relaxing. Or it can be a pain in the … You have to be in a certain type of mood to paint.”
