About Marvin Waller
Fine artist Marvin Waller was born on June 26, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. He lived with his family in Chicago, IL; London, UK; Philadelphia, PA; and New York City, NY. While in NYC he met writer and editor Mary Patricia Wheeler and married her in 1950. Their firstborn, Susan Waller, came along in 1951 followed by William Waller in 1952 after they had moved to Mount Vernon, NY, a suburb of NYC. The two most monumental experiences in Marvin’s life were first, studying life drawing with Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League in NYC in the late 1940s-early 1950s.
He saw very early in his artistic career that he was blessed with a hand that obeyed his intellect. Not only did Marsh teach life drawing, but when he taught anatomy, he used mostly drawings by Michelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens, the ‘cream of the crop.’ Marvin leaned mostly to black ink on paper. You can’t screw up with black ink. As he became more experienced, his lines grew more economical until he could say so much with so few lines it was amazing. His drawing was most prolific at this time - the first four years of his serious artistic career. Sue and Bill have a fraction of what probably was a huge output of drawings, but they have about one hundred and forty drawings, seven woodcuts, and seventeen of his watercolors. While in NYC – earning a living as an artist and designer of lighting fixtures – he met Roger Martin, an artist from the small seaside town of Rockport, MA. Through Martin, he was introduced to Rockport and Cape Ann, where he brought his family to paint the scenery and light every summer. In 1959, he moved his family to Rockport, where he stayed for the rest of his life.
From the 1940s to the 1970s, he created at least fifty paintings in oils and watercolors along with numerous drawings and woodcuts. In the mid-1960s, he taught himself architecture to better support his family. His architectural career was successful, and he took great satisfaction in pursuing the craft. However, his accomplishments in the fine arts, especially his drawings, are worthy of renewed public attention. They are that good.
The second momentous thing that happened in Marvin’s life was to his eyes and mind, when his younger brother Al took him to Italy, in the 1980s. There he was truly moved by the magnitude of the beautiful paintings, sculptures, drawings, and architecture by the artistic masters in Rome, Florence, and Assisi. This experience further enriched his already astute knowledge of art history and refined his philosophy of art. Marvin believed very strongly that if you could draw the human body, you could draw anything. If you could not draw the human body, you couldn’t draw.
Marvin always loved his wife Pat immensely. He adored his children and their children, and celebrated all of their victories. He always loved where he lived, and thought Cape Ann was one of the most beautiful places in the country. Seeing the artistic greatness of monumental achievements in Italy, he was inspired tremendously for the rest of his life. He definitely died a happy and contented man on April 26, 1994, at the age of 65.
