The youngest of five brothers from Ozone Park, Queens, Philip Fusco created his first painting as a teenager, inspired by examining a puzzle of a Norman Rockwell painting. That piece, still hanging in his studio, is a magnificent first effort done in the style of the Dutch Masters. It is hard to believe it was created by a high school student. The painter, who works in oil, is a long-time artist member of the Huntington Arts Council. This talented artist recently gave us a tour of his home, in which every room is filled with his cityscapes, mountain vistas and portraits of Silvia, his wife of many years.
With the exception of Carlo, who was an athlete, every sibling in the Fusco family was artistic: Joseph was a dancer; Nicholas, a portrait painter; Mario, an opera singer. Because their mother died when they were quite young, all the brothers helped raise each other in a railroad flat in the neighborhood where their father ran a fruit and vegetable store. Philip painted his father's store from memory; that picture is so life-like you can imagine yourself walking past the store and stopping to examine the produce.
Philip Fusco had no formal training in painting or any other fine art. Perhaps his skill in rendering the keen detail he puts into each painting was developed in his work as a draftsman for Rosenblatt & Son, doing structural design work, and later as a structural engineer for the American Bureau of Shipping until his retirement. His detail work and innate sense of composition and light have resulted in paintings that have been enjoyed by Long Islanders at both the Heckscher Museum of Art and the Nassau County Museum of Art in addition to their appearances at the Salmagundi Club and various galleries on the Island. He has been invited to exhibit his landscapes at the Salmagundi Art Club for six out of the last eight years.
"People see my paintings and they think I 'copy' all the details of the bricks or houses or whatever," he told us. "But I don't, because I am working from my own photos, memory and imagination -- in other words, life's experience. And for me, the smaller the photo, the more difficult it is to show what you want to." That is where experience enters the picture.
His personal favorite painting is a scene of the interior of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, where the light from above on the stone surfaces draws in the viewer to look at all the fine details both in the light and partially hidden in the shadows. That piece sits in his living room next to an interesting curio which he built himself to house both his wife's dolls and a grandfather clock. Also in the living room is a painting he created to honor those who died in the World Trade Center on September 11. It is done in the style of Giovanni Tiepolo, the post-Renaissance Venetian painter. Philip is listed in the World Trade Center Artist Registry.
While he was working, Philip put his painting on hold for over 20 years. When he resumed, he created a huge mural of Portofino which now hangs in the bedroom, along with other landscapes created at the same time. One of his paintings, "Old Bethany," a wall in Palestine, was awarded first prize at the American Artists Professional League Members Exhibit, Pen and Brush Club, New York City.
If you are interested in seeing Philip's paintings, please visit the Home Art Gallery, 213 Main Street in Port Jefferson, the Wilkes Gallery at 91 Main Street in Northport, the Frame Center at 73 E. Main Street in Smithtown or call the Huntington Arts Council at 631.271.8423 to contact him. Artpix Studio makes Philip's giclee prints, which can be viewed at www.artpixstudio.com.
