To Joe H. Wheater

You paint your pictures with a pencil

     I try the same with a pen;

We try to do justice to Nature

     And show her up to all men.

And whether success or failures

     We love it and live for it, too;

And to live and to die in the striving

     Is the noblest thing we can do.

June 13, ‘08

Wheater, Joseph Harry

American,  1855-1929

Born in Bradford, England, Joe Wheater came to America with his parents at a young age, initially settling in Cambridge, MA. then in City Point section of South Boston, MA near the water and yacht clubs.

In May, 1904, at age 19, he sailed alone to England from Boston on the S.S. Saxonia staying in Bradford, England with aunts, uncles and cousins for about 3 months. During his extended visit, he painted and drew scenes of Bradford and neighboring towns. He returned in September with over 120 sketches and watercolors as well as many snapshots.

As a young man, he worked designing steam boat whistles. In his early 20's, Joe Wheater enrolled at The Fenway School of Illustration. He later studied under Henry W. Rice, who was a well known Boston water colorist with a studio in the Fenway area of Boston.

Around 1915-1916, Joe Wheater became a reference artist for a motion picture company in New Jersey. He stayed at an artist colony in Leonia, N.J., with artists who became quite famous, notably Dean Cornell, Charles Defeo Harry Ballinger and many others. 

While working in NJ, he took courses at the Art Students League in New York City. Joe Wheater returned to South Boston when his father died and lived with his mother. He never married. His mother passed away about 1935 or 1936. Wheater lived at that address near the Yacht Clubs until he died in 1959. 

Wheater never cared to have an exhibition, painting only for his own pleasure and satisfaction. He traveled the New England states, Quebec and Nova Scotia to get subjects to paint. Wheater was a long time member of the South Boston Yacht Club. Joe Wheater worked in watercolor, oil and pencil, doing landscape and seascape scenes. A small size oil of a schooner at anchor is in the possession of the Peabody Museum.

Wheater lived alone and at age 74 died of a massive heart attack. He is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester, MA.

http://www.wolfsfineart.com/biographies3.htm

                           

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