THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510260222
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Claire Cashau started painting when she was 11 years old.
Every Saturday for a year, she studied oil painting from a lady in their New Jersey neighborhood.
Cashau was one of six children, and money was tight. An art lesson, she says, equaled a meal.
``I felt honored and pleased that they would go out and buy me equipment to do this,'' she said of her parents.
But when the neighbor moved away, the lessons stopped.
Cashau did not paint again for nearly 40 years. She married at 21, worked as a psychiatric secretary and raised three children. There was no time to pursue painting. After Cashau's husband, George, was transferred from New Jersey to Virginia to work, she started looking around for a job.
She didn't feel ready to work yet and she was concerned because she had no computer skills. During her rambling, she stumbled across a painting studio and decided lessons would be much more fun than working.
So at 50, she started painting again, using the very same paints she first worked with 40 years earlier. For the next 14 years, she studied oil painting under the same teacher.
She loved being in the company of other artists. They would take trips to the art museum. This was where she learned about the old masters in painting.
``The critiques were the best part of the whole class,'' she said.
Cashau thrived on the feedback of her teacher and other artists. So naturally, she sought out a teacher upon arriving on the Outer Banks about a year ago.
At 65, Cashau is now studying water color under Pat Troiani. The new medium is difficult for Cashau. She is more comfortable using a dry brush technique.
But she has her mind set on mastering the wet method, ``to be able to do the loose watery look such as you need for flowers,'' she said. ``I have to master that.''
Cashau and her husband have retired to Southern Shores and are enjoying their beautiful new home. She is delighted to have a studio to paint in.
Their large home is filled with Cashau's paintings. Some are replicas of old masters, some are copies of famous photographs or subjects she fancies.
The diversity of her work is evidence of the years she's spent taking painting classes. Her studio reveals paintings of flowers - of particular beauty is a colorful one of pansies. She's painted people and landscapes. She enjoys painting animals the best and is quite adept at rendering an animal's coat hair by hair.
Cashau is a realist. While she paints solely from photographs, she manages to impart life in her images. No surprise, coming from such an upbeat person.
Southern Shores has done well to inherit Claire Cashau. It will be exciting to watch her watercolors come to life. MEMO: You can view Claire Cashau's work by calling 255-0782.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Claire Cashau's interest in painting was interrupted when she
married at 21, then worked as a psychiatric secretary and raised
three children.
by CNB