Published 04/07/10 Updated 04/10/10

Flanked by his daughter Linda to the left, and his publicist Helen Barnett, to the right, Bruno Ahnert enjoys the opening reception for his show.

Still Loving Life, Painting … at 90!

“BRUNO AT 90, Ahnert To Be Here,” the first retrospective of paintings by Bruno Ahnert (pictured left), an Old Lyme artist celebrating his 90th year, will be on view at the Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library from today, April 9, through June 11.

An opening reception for the artist was held Friday evening, which was very well attended and boasted several sales.

The public is welcome to attend the reception at which refreshments will be served and paintings may be purchased.  The artist is donating a portion of sales to the library.

“I am delighted to showcase Bruno Ahnert’s wonderful paintings for those who already know his work or are seeing it for the first time, ” says Mary Fiorelli, Library Director.

She continues, “This accomplished artist who pursued his natural talent—though late in life—is such an inspiration.”

Ahnert was born in Alberta, Canada, in the town of Medicine Hat, a name evolved from Indian lore.  His family decided to emigrate to the U.S. but was turned away at Niagara Falls, he recalled.  His mother and five children spent two years in Toronto while his father sought work in the States.  Eventually they were reunited, settling in the Byram area of Greenwich where he grew up

“Ashlawn Farm” by Bruno Ahnert will be on display in the exhibition, which opens Friday at the library.

As a grade school student and a member of a Boy Scout troop, Ahnert enjoyed making posters and signs.  In high school, he painted signs for the W. T. Grant stores, providing him with spending money.  At age 16, he made his first landscape painting from a photograph of Mt. Washington published in National Geographic.

Ahnert served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was assigned to the Corps of Engineers in Alexandria, La.  To his amazement he was put in charge of a drafting class.  “Here I was just a young kid, teaching others.  I guess it was that I could use a pencil,” he laughs.

It was in Alexandria that he met his wife, Norma, and where their two children were born.  They returned to Connecticut, where he honed his skills as a draftsman for several steel fabricating companies in Stamford, Bridgeport and Newington.  Eventually he and Norma decided to go into business themselves and bought Coastal Steel Corporation, a structural steel company in Salem, where they lived and worked for 30 years.  They moved to Old Lyme in 1998.

Although he felt “blessed with a talent,” and occasionally picked up a brush, he felt that he could not devote time to art while he had a family to support.  It was Norma who recognized his ability and urged him to enroll in classes when he retired.  So at age 67 he became a student at the Greater Hartford Community College.

“I guess everybody was wondering what the hell this old guy was doing there,” he laughs.  He recalls that at the next session he was “bumped” in favor of degree-seeking students.  He also remembers that his teacher was an abstractionist—an art style not to Bruno’s taste—perhaps because, “I couldn’t paint like that.”

But he found it interesting that the other students were coming to him to ask how he was able to do certain things.  Of course from a long career in construction, he had acquired two important basics: rendering precise drawings and a sense of perspective.

“Barns Out Back” by Bruno Ahnert displays the artist’s distinctive and much admired style.

It was not until he took classes in Old Lyme that he found a teacher who took an interest in him—Jerry Caron, who was on the faculty of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.  “Jerry was a great teacher,” Ahnert says.  “He had a good motto: simple is best.”  In addition to classes at the College, Ahnert most enjoyed Caron’s week-long workshops near Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where he studied for three or four summers.  “I love plein air painting and there I marveled at how people were able to handle the light changes from morning to afternoon.  Painting all day and then having critiques, were just invaluable,” he recalls.

At one painting session Caron told another artist, Jack Broderick: “Bruno is working on a keeper,” meaning that he should never sell that painting but keep it himself.  Even though the compliment was not a direct one, Ahnert cherished it.

After a few years of painting workshops he was advised to just “get out and paint.”  He did and he considers himself largely self-taught, having developed his own style.  No longer able to paint outdoors, he works in his studio on still life subjects.  Richly painted and simply composed, these may be some of his best works.

“Painting is just fun,” he said.  “I enjoy it.  It’s tremendous therapy—when you are at that easel and are concentrating on that canvas, you just forget all your aches and troubles.”

He’s appreciative of friends and family who have encouraged him, particularly his daughter, Linda who has also been involved in the arts as a volunteer and docent at the Florence Griswold Museum for the past eight years.  A former writer for the Main Street News, Linda is also the highly regarded Arts Editor for LymeLine and OldSaybrookNow, a position she has held for more than five years.

Ahnert joined the Lyme Art Association in 1998 and became an elected artist member.  His work has been exhibited there and at various Shoreline galleries as well as the State Capitol building in Hartford.  His work is in many private collections.  He also joins the Plein Air Painters at their lawn exhibition at the Old Lyme Inn during the town’s annual Midsummer Festival.

Because of his deep family connection to Louisiana, Ahnert decided to hold a special art sale at his home for the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund in 2005.  A simple cardboard sign on his lawn alerted people to the sale, which raised $6,000.

Currently Ahnert is working—rather re-working—a portrait he started years ago of his beloved wife, Norma, who died in 2003.  “I painted for my wife because she enjoyed my work so much,” he explains.”  No doubt she would be pleased that now so many others will too.

The “BRUNO at 90” exhibition is free and open to the public.  Sales of Ahnert’s work continue through June 11.

The Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library is located at 1 Library Lane, just off Lyme Street. Gallery Hours are Monday and Wednesday from10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 pm.

For more information about the exhibition, call 860-434-1684 or visit  www.oldlyme.lioninc.org