Community Corner

John Massimino: Area Artist Tries to Capture a Mood

The area artist will serve as a juror for an exhibition the North Haven Art League will hold this spring.

This post was reported and written by freelance journalist Nancy Barnes.

Should you ever greet John Massimino, the slight, bespectacled man will respectfully tip his hat.  

Ever the gentleman, artist and visiting Paier College of Art professor John Massimino has exhibited widely in this country and Italy.

Massimino — who has lived in East Haven for six years — is scheduled to serve as a juror for an exhibition the North Haven Art League will hold this spring.    

Critic G. Pisani of Naples, Italy, has termed Massimeio's technique "transcendent."  Charles B. Ferguson, director emeritus of the New Britain Museum of Art, termed the artist's solo exhibition there "a pleasure."  

Most recently, Massimino exhibited his paintings of scenes that range from the streets of Italy to the mass that is East Rock at the DaSilva Gallery in New Haven. He has received 40 painting awards, and his work holds a place in both private and public collections.  

"I don't seem to be able to do anything other than art," said Massimino. "Other than teaching and painting, I've never done anything else." 

Massimino attributes any artistic bent he received from his parents, who came to this country from Capri, to his mother.  He said she had wanted to be an actress, which was a vocation her father opposed.   

Massimino, who was born in New Haven, began art lessons at the age of 14.  He holds a B.F.A. from the Hartford School of Art, and he served on the faculty of the Paier College of Art, where he still holds the rank of visiting professor, for 25 years. 

"I try to capture a mood," said the artist of his impressionistic style.  "I try to capture somewhat artistically the mood and feeling that's there, that's wherever I am."  

He conceded that "the color's not there" in Israel, where he has traveled. But he finds color in abundance in Italy, where he has traveled extensively while visting the island of Capri.    

He conceded that Italy is his favorite place to paint.  

"The color.  The light.  And I'm Italian," he said.  It's in my blood."  

He also pointed to the artistic milieu he finds there — and this, not only in the visual arts but also in such artistic forms as the opera. Massimino said he completes one-fourth of his paintings outside.  

For the rest, he completes studies — first, in black and white to lay down the value pattern, and, then, in color that, he noted, changes rapidly because of shifts in light.  

Subsequently, he completes these paintings in his studio. 

"When you paint, you have to walk 5 miles," he affirmed, noting that the impressionistic style in which he works requires that the colors laid on a canvas blend at a distance.  The artist, he said, must continually walk back and forth from his canvas to see how well his colors have come together.  

He counts among his influences artists whose brushstrokes left clear evidence of their hand, such as the American expatriate John Singer Sargent, the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the incomparable Vincent van Gogh. 

Roughly 30 years ago, Massimino, who had painted in oils, learned that he had an allergy to linseed oil.  As a result, he had to switch to acrylic paint.  In acrylic, he builds up his colors from glazes, which are thin and transparent layers of paint.  

The result is not only his unique palette of colors--among them, a sharp yet exuberant pink — but also the luminosity for which his work is known. 

"Acrylic works pretty well this way," he said. 

A strong bond between Massimino and East Haven is his family.  His daughter, who once lived in Hawaii, resides in the town, as do her two children.  

Indeed, his grandson, who is 12, has taken art awards in Hawaii and in East Haven as well. 

"He's a pip," the proud grandparent said. 

In addition to his painting and his association with the Paier College of Art, Massimino also conducts art critiques in Wallingford and Clinton.  

Anyone wishing to learn more about John Massimino or contact him to see his work can visit his website, which is jmassimino.com.


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