Bill working in Morro Bay, CA, Fall '08
TRAVERSE CITY — By all appearances, the 15-year-old girl was strong, beautiful and full of life. After painting her portrait, Bill Hosner turned his easel around for her to see the creation.
The girl smiled and said, “I always wanted to be model, and now I am,” Hosner remembered.
It was a bittersweet moment for the Traverse City artist, who was at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit sketching portraits of youth fighting terminal illnesses. His model, seemingly healthy-looking, was there after a rough episode several days prior due to the life-threatening disease cystic fibrosis.
Hosner volunteers to capture patients on canvas and gives the portraits to the children and their families at no cost. It’s only a small part of his career, and only in recent years has the landscape and figure painter made monthly trips downstate to create portraits using conte crayons with white chalk highlights.
But it’s part of his work Hosner, 58, wouldn’t give up.
Credit: Douglas Tesner/Record-Eagle
“Without a doubt, it’s by far been the most rewarding experience of my talent,” he said of the more than 200 patient portraits he’s completed over the past five years. “All for the grand total of a child’s smile — it’s worth more than 10 million dollars. The goal is to let a child who is suffering know they have value in their suffering. You do capture a moment. You can’t help but read the mood of the person you are drawing.
“It’s a connection between you and the person you are drawing.”
The hospital is grateful to Hosner, who has spent more than 400 hours with patients and their families, said Erin O’Mara, manager of volunteer services. O’Mara said children are excited to have their portrait painted.
“He has a very calming way about him. He brings a peacefulness to the room,” she said. “The families treasure these works. It’s an unbelievable gift.”
Hosner, father of two grown sons who lives and works in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, moved to Traverse City from Petoskey this summer. When he’s not volunteering downstate, he’s at his easel outside the Mercato or a spot overlooking another northern Michigan landscape, some scenes which may include a person.
His work, which he says is influenced in part by the great Russian impressionists, is dedicated to the art of what’s called “Plein Air painting.”
Working entirely from what’s in front of him in real life — not a photograph — Hosner’s pastel impressionistic paintings are created outside, even in winter.
“I try to paint what I am inspired to paint and present that to the public as an artistic statement,” said Hosner, who has painted cathedrals in Mexico, barns in Nebraska and Lake Michigan beaches.
A recent figure painting was the result of Hosner meeting a construction worker on the Village grounds.
“I paint people I meet in life, and she is one of the young women who works for the contractor here,” he said. “She was wearing overalls, a kerchief in her hair, paint all over herself. I thought, I want to paint this person.”
Other recent works include a backside view of one of the historic Village buildings. These paintings will end up going to Suttons Bay Galleries, one of three galleries in the country to carry Hosner’s work.
“He’s absolutely the finest American pastel painter living today, without a doubt,” said Piper Goldson, owner of Suttons Bay Galleries, 102 E. Jefferson St. “He paints Plein Air and that alone gives it absolute energy. His work is so diverse — landscape, seascape, still life and figure.”
Hosner is able to take something seen everyday and reveal an angle that others may not see otherwise, Goldson said.
“Everyone who comes in here is really captivated by them because they really are stunning,” she said. “He’s subtle, but there’s an energy there that is very compelling. They really capture your attention.”
Hosner, who rededicated himself to fine art painting at the peak of a highly successful career in commercial art, is relishing the time he has to hone his Plein Air painting capabilities. He travels throughout the United States to teach classes as well as makes trips abroad to paint. He sometimes is commissioned to do work, though much of what he does stems from his own inspirations.
“There’s a much deeper meaning to painting that’s so much further behind the image you’re seeing,” he said. “It’s getting to the thing in life you feel love toward or that inspires you.”