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- GLOUCESTER ? Life as a creative person has meant Maurice Gamache never knew what he would be doing next. In 1940, he did graphic arts for one of the largest photo off-set printers in New York. During his stint with the Navy, 1942-45, he created a large painting of the Navy's medical ship, Tranquility, for the dispensary. In the 1970s, the owner of a chain of McDonald's hired him to do pen and ink drawings of each of his 25 fast-food restaurants. Now, the 80-year-old is putting all the fine points he learned in those jobs to work in a full-time creative mode he has dreamed about pursuing for decades - retirement as an artist who is free to express himself with paint and brush put only to canvas.
Originally from Montreal, Canada, the Gamache family moved to New York when Maurice was 10 years old. By the age of 16, he was working as an apprentice in an interior decorator's studio in New York City. ``It was during the Depression and it was tough finding a job, but my Dad was ill and I had to do what I could,'' he says. That job was his introduction to the world of art. He learned how to make perspective drawings of interiors and how to stencil designs for walls and ceilings. He also worked with the artist on murals. ``Often, we would design and paint the interiors of theaters. They were much more ornate in those days. In one of them, we painted scenes straight out of Egypt, all along the walls.'' At one point, he asked for a raise and was turned down. So, he promptly took a job as designer and decorator for a cabinet maker. At the end of four years, he was supervising three men, but the artist in him felt a need to grow. He switched to graphic arts. All this time, Gamache was putting himself through college at night. He is a graduate in fine arts from Cooper Union in New York City; he also completed a three-year course in advertising design at Pratt Institute in New York. ``I'm from the `old school' of art instruction. For one full year, we did nothing but sketch in charcoal in order to learn shading and perspective,'' he says.
When Gamache was promoted to head of his department at the publishing company, World War II had just begun. He resigned his position to enlist in the Navy and was soon on active duty aboard a mine sweeper. As part of his training, he was sent to the Mine Warfare School in Yorktown and then to the Naval Mine Depot, now the Naval Weapons Station, in 1942. When the military discovered his artistic talents, Gamache was transferred to the drafting room. In special duty assignments, he was often commissioned to paint murals. ``I did a large painting for the dispensary. It was of the medical ship, Tranquility,'' he says. ``It hung there for years, but when the dispensary was torn down, the painting was saved and moved. Now it is hanging in Bethesda Naval Hospital.'' Gamache also was asked to submit a design for the main gate at the Naval Weapons Station. His design was adopted and the gate built. It remained a landmark at Lackey until it was replaced with another gate last year. But, life in the drafting department had an even bigger impact on Gamache's life. ``I met this girl who worked in the room next to mine, a Gloucester girl by the name of Bertha Christine Ambrose. We went together for about a year and I married her. Then the war ended and we went to New York,'' says Gamache. He worked in the art department of Haire Publishing Co. for 13 years, but the lure of Virginia called him back. Deciding to work nearer his wife's home, Gamache went to work at the Naval Weapons Station once again, this time as a civilian in the art department. Three years later, he was named director of the art department at the Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base. He was there for 15 years until he retired on a disability in 1976 at the age of 63.
Then, Gamache launched himself, full speed into the world of creative art. ``Everything excites me. Everything is a subject for my painting,'' he says. Gamache is particularly excited by subjects that relate to the Gloucester area. There is Rosewell, both as it appeared in its days of glory and in ruins. There are ships and people, even a fanciful rendering of a new suspension bridge spanning the York River. ``In most of my work, I use a lot of contrast in light and shading in an effort to get a three-dimensional effect. That's where a lot of my on-the-job training came in handy,'' he says. His wife, who died in 1986, is featured in many of his earlier works. In one painting, she relaxes in a folding chair on the beach, her gaze directed at the sea. ``While I was working on it, she told me that she didn't like it; that it made her look too fat. So I made some changes. I added a hat, sun glasses, an artist's easel and paints. Then I told her not to worry, that it was really a self-portrait of me.'' Gamache finds he does some of his best work when he's commissioned to do specific subjects, like the McDonald's restaurants.
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1913 - 1994 (81 years)
