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Visual Arts: Made in Hull

Ros Farbush: "Hull has Always Been My Home"

Even though Ros Farbush has only lived in Hull "officially" since 2002, she has always felt that Hull is her home. Even when she lived in Cohasset, she never liked to paint in Cohasset. "It was too prim and proper for me. I always like to come paint the earthiness of Hull. It was just more appealing to me as an artist."

Ros creates her paintings on location (planar) setting up her easel and canvas and painting what she sees in front of her. This is the painting method she learned in high school.

Ros grew up in Boston and went to Dorchester High School for Girls from 1945 to 1949. It was there that her love of art and talent as a painter was nurtured by a very special high school art teacher. "There were six or seven of us really interested in art. At that time we could major in art in high school. I knew then that I just wasn't interested in anything else and I wasn't good at anything else! I loved art and I loved painting. We were all very poor living in the inner city and this art teacher had money and she invested in us with their own money. She bought oil paint and canvas for us and she would take us in her car to paint. I don't think anything like that ever existed in the city of Boston except in our class. We would go to places like the Arnold Arboretum and the shore in South Boston. She loved to paint and she would paint along with us. And I just got into the habit of painting right there and then. And that's still how I paint today."

"We lived in the inner city and I think probably painting was my escape, because I would go to different places to paint. And I would see things."

When she was in her second year of high school this art teacher submitted these student's portfolios to the Museum of Fine Arts School, and this group of art students were allowed to leave high school early three days a week to take classes at the Museum. "We had a scholarship that lasted until senior year and then we applied for a scholarship to the Museum School of Fine Arts and that's where I went to college. That's where I taught after I finished college. Not only did I teach at the Museum but when I first started to teach I taught the same classes that I was a student at when I was in the Museum high school classes! It was incredible. It was just timing. I knew one of the people in charge of the classes and she asked me if I would substitute because one of the teachers was sick and I was there for 30 years."

"That was my primary job because you certainly couldn't earn any money being an artist." Ros taught classes in the afternoon and painted in the mornings. "I've been painting ever since. I am 79 so I've been painting well 55 or 60 years." Ros has also been teaching art for many years and taught a group of women in Hull who met in the barn of a home on Sunset Ave. owned by Rose O'Neil. One of her students was Gladys Wolfe, whose son, Craig, was featured recently on HULLMAgazine.com.

"Artists see things a lot differently. Because of the creativity in us we see a lot of colors that other people don't see."

Asked what her favorite places to paint are here in Hull, Ros says that her very favorite place is the Gunrock beach area. "That's one of my favorite places because the houses still have soul. They are very interesting to me - the surrounding of the water and the nonconformity of the buildings. They're all different which makes it more arty for me."

She loves to paint the boatyard on the bay opposite where Daley & Wanzer park their trucks. There are certain houses that she likes to paint, one in particular on B Street that was owned by Evan Jordan, the owner of the Jordan Marsh department store. She likes to paint the buildings on the hill above Anasto's Corner, as well as the concession stands in town.

What she likes best about Hull is that it still has the feeling of a small town. "When you go to town meeting you really feel that you are part of a community."

 

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