Area castles are captured on his canvas
After 30 years as a professional illustrator laboring over drafting boards in offices, Methuen resident Ron Delli Colli returned home to his studio in 2002 to create some of his most personal work.
The result is a collection of paintings capturing the architectural legacy of another notable Methuen native, Edward Searles, a wealthy interior and architectural designer known for 19th-century structures such as the Searles castles in Great Barrington and Windham, N.H. "Searles 2002-2007" is a realistic evocation of an abandoned majesty that is scattered throughout the landscape of northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
"Everything I've done in my life led me to this series. It's a culmination of all my work over the past few decades," said Delli Colli, who was born in Lawrence and raised in Methuen.
The 62-year-old artist, who spent a career illustrating commissioned works for advertising agencies, publishing houses, and corporations, used his surroundings as raw material.
"I always read about the great masters painting their surroundings. I lived with these structures all my life and overlooked them. We all have a tendency to overlook our surroundings, but artists can help open our eyes," said Delli Colli, who after graduating from the Art Institute of Boston in 1966 worked for companies such as the now defunct Tower Publishing in New Hampshire, he said. Among his most notable works as an illustrator was a calendar for Lifeline Health Care. Between 1997 and 2001 he was involved in a series of Victorian paintings in Gloucester.
"I had a lot of fun but prefer this kind of work any day," he said.
The exhibition will go on display next Saturday at the Methuen Historical Society, but Delli Colli said it's not the historical element he finds interesting. Instead he treats the architecture as something on which to reflect and to cast his artistic eye.
"The important thing is what they mean to me. I look at them as artistic subjects that can be interpreted through painting. I'm thrilled by their artistic capacity," he said.
While they are strikingly true to form, Delli Colli's paintings could not be confused with textbook photographs. The artist paid careful attention to perspective and composition, bringing forth the feeling of grandeur that inspired Searles, who married Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins in 1887, an heiress and one-quarter owner of the Central Pacific Railroad. After his wife's death in 1891, Searles was left with $21 million in addition to substantial real estate holdings in San Francisco, New York, Great Barrington, and Methuen.
"I want audiences to see what one man's wealth has done for communities like Methuen, Windham, and Salem. These paintings really capture just how far one person's wealth can take them, along with the legacy and prosperity they can leave to a community," said Joe Bella, president of the Methuen Historical Society, who has known Delli Colli since high school.
Delli Colli's appreciation for the structures developed after Sept. 11, 2001, establishing a link between present and past, he said.
"Sept. 11 had just ended when I started all this. There was a scary feeling in the air," he said. "I was thinking about my surroundings more and realized how amazing it is that these structures are still standing after 100 years. They are relics."
They are relics in his own backyard, but Delli Colli said "even people that aren't from Methuen will enjoy the show.
"It's housed in a historical building that has the same Victorian feel as the paintings. I want to convey a feeling of beauty that can be appreciated by everyone," he said.
The exhibition will be in the Historical Society's headquarters, the Tenney Gatehouse, which is unique because it was once the only stop for stagecoaches between Boston and New Hampshire before the construction of the Boston Turnpike Hotel, said Bella.
Bella is encouraging Delli Colli to continue with a series portraying other memorable Methuen millionaires, such as the architecture built by the Tenney family.
"We're primarily here to keep and preserve what we have for future generations of Methuen," Bella said. "Ron's paintings help communicate that message."
Correction: Because of a reporting error, an Oct. 4 People & Places story about an exhibition of paintings by Ron Delli Colli gave an incorrect address for the venue. The Methuen Historical Society's Tenney Gatehouse is at 37 Pleasant St. in Methuen. In the same article, the caption for a photo of a painting of the Searles Castle in Windham, N.H., should have identified the work as "Majestic Scene."
