A lifetime in watercolors

STORY BY KATIE HEATH | PHOTOS BY TOMMY CALDERON

At 12 years old, Michael Heath would peddle his bike to the US-23, the only freeway out of Columbus, Ohio, and stop by the side of the road. Cars driving by, he would pause at the perfect nook in the road, and unload his product in a perfect display- a hearty stack of watercolors he had painted, strapped to the back of his bike. Cars soon went from whizzing by to slowing down, to finally stopping. This is how Heath first exhibited his art.

Some of Heath’s first memories were watching light dance across objects around him. He saw how it affected color and shadow- when it hit, blues would change hues, and darkness would drop and blend and envelop reds and yellows. He was fascinated with the play of light and color.

His mother thought there was something wrong with him. His grandparents however, saw something promising in their oldest grandson, and gave a four-year-old Heath his first set of watercolors.

Heath, now 63, lives in Bellingham and is a professional watercolor artist and instructor. Although his life has taken him to places near and far, the one thing that pulls it all together is his love for art.

Now a fixture of the Bellingham art scene, with paintings displayed at various businesses in downtown Bellingham and Fairhaven, Heath continues to contribute new and exciting art that reflects his years of experience in art and life.

He paints primarily landscapes, which caught the eye of Allied Arts, an art gallery in downtown Bellingham. Scenes from Mount Baker, the Snoqualmie National Forest area and the Nooksack River are some of his most common, the colors of the sky bleeding together to create a euphoric palate of lights and darks.

“He’s just got a really nice way with colors,” says Katy Tolles, the artist services coordinator at the gallery. “You look at his paintings and you can even feel the weather in the landscape.”

Heath doesn’t let his passions stop at his own work. He teaches art and painting every week at Allied Arts, grouping students together to let them explore with watercolors.

“I enjoy being with people in the arts,” he says. “There’s much more open and honest thinking. It’s not so much about making money as creating something positive.”

In high school, he became interested in pursuing art professionally when he learned that Ohio State University was the first school in the country to offer a degree in fine arts.

“Then I got serious about it,” says Heath. He planned on enrolling in the college, but time was not on his side.

In 1970, Heath was drafted into the Vietnam War, before he had a chance to start or even think about college. He was sent from the family farm in Ohio to San Diego with the Naval Amphibious branch, away from everything he had ever known. But he soon found familiarity in an unfamiliar place — the San Diego Watercolor Society, and with it, a slew of people who encouraged him to keep up his passions.

During peace time Heath was given the assignment of running one of the ships stores on the USS Ogden. This is where he could display some of his artwork and talk about his paintings.

“I started sending my work to captains and admirals,” he laughs.

His time wasn’t only spent in Southern California, however. He spent periods in Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, the latter two is where he met a lot of people, but hopes to never return. While continuing to paint, he says that what he saw in during the war put the world, and his art, into perspective for him.

“I met real people and saw real situations,” he says. “You see the world as it really is.” Heath was allowed to leave the service a few months early due to an early-out the military offered to those serving who were going to college.

After getting out of the service in 1974, he finally had the chance to get his fine arts degree from Ohio State.

He accredits the opportunity to earn his BFA in fine arts from Western in 1980 to the one-third tuition they offered to veterans.

During his time at Western, he focused on showing his art around Fairhaven, in the building that now houses Tony’s Coffee, and in a now-defunct gallery called Visions Gallery. Heath smiles as he remembers the studio where he got most of his work done- in the then abandoned Colophon Café building, where he “probably illegally,” ran a small art studio.

Now, Heath’s art is still displayed in Fairhaven, but he has seen the buildings and store around his paintings change. He knows what used to be where, how old the buildings are, and knows the owners of many of the small businesses that make up Fairhaven. He’s seen it grow and change, but for the most part, his subjects — landscapes, inspired by the places around him — have stayed the same.

He paints in all sorts of mediums but watercolors were and remain his first love, Heath says.

“With watercolors, I like the spontaneity and the control- the use of pigments flowing through water,” he says. “It’s more permanent than other mediums.”

Tolles sees this masterful use of watercolors as what makes Heath’s scenes stand apart from others.

“There are so many pretty pictures of Mount Baker out there, and to be able to capture something to make it really stand out, that’s the hardest part,” she says. “I don’t know how he does it but he just does. “

Heath has taught at universities, sold and displayed his own work in galleries, stores, and homes across the country as well as internationally and has inspired countless aspiring artists. But despite it all, he’s still got the eagerness and drive of that 12-year-old boy, sitting by his bike, catching the eyes of divers whizzing by on that one highway out of Columbus.