Art School With Paul Henschke – 1968

I mentioned last week how back in the 1960s, my parents conspired to keep my siblings and me busy and away from the TV set, especially on Saturdays. 

On Saturday mornings, we took trumpet lessons with Mr. Visci; on Saturday afternoons, Dad took us fishing.

Somehow we managed to squeeze in bowling in a Saturday morning league at Shoreway Lanes; and – as I mentioned last week – we took also art lessons.

The art lessons were given by well-known local artist Paul Henschke. Some of the lessons involved sketching on location (such as Lakeview Park); other times the lessons were given indoor at St. Mary High School.

The article below, which appeared in the Journal on October 1, 1968, tells the story.

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Youngsters Learn to Be Artists on Saturday Mornings

Both my younger and older brothers made it
into this photograph

Numerous contests and exhibitions in all art medias are planned between students in the art school now being conducted Saturday mornings at St. Mary High School in Lorain.

Paul Henschke is instructor for the classes. He said lectures and practice will be in fine art only because his students, age 8 to 15, are too young to understand abstract art.

The usual sketching and drawing of art classes will be supplemented by practice in the fundamentals of watercolor, pastels, and later for older advanced students, oil painting.

STUDENTS also will study all phases of commercial art such as posters and greeting card design.

Henschke said a trip to the Cleveland Art Gallery is scheduled so the boys and girls can see art masterpieces. He also hopes they will gain “insight of what art really is as a creative form.”

THE ART school is for all students in Lorain, parochial and public, Henschke said. Those who still wish to register may contact him at St. Mary High School.

Classes will continue through May.

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You’ve got to give Mr. Henschke a lot of credit. Teaching fine art to little kids was quite an ambitious undertaking. And he was rather intimidating, especially with his thick foreign accent that was hard for a kid to understand.

I don’t think we stuck with the art lessons very long, because I don’t remember doing any painting or going to the Cleveland Art Museum. Out of my three siblings and me, I was the only one to make art a career. At least it saved me from the burden of being rich.

I posted an article about Mr. Henscke back here, in which I also wrote about the 1968 Summer Art Classes. In the early days of this blog, I did a three-part series on those Summer art classes here, here and here.