Master of his medium

By Annie L. Scholl/Correspondent

Four words sum up Cedar Rapids watercolor artist Joe Messner's approach to his art - and his life.

“Beauty,” he says, “is my quest.”

“I see beauty everywhere. I really do. And I feel it. There's such beauty out there, even in a pile of rocks. The shapes. The curvature. Look at how a rock sits there, solid and not budging at all.”

Messner, who turned 90 on May 6, was instrumental in forming the Iowa Watercolor Society in June 1977 and served as the organization's first president. Over the years, he has created more than 600 works of art. A public art sale, featuring a variety of original watercolor paintings and Giclee limited edition prints, will take place at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, starting with viewings Tuesday and Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.

Pam White, of White Cow Art Consulting, which is helping with the sale, says many of his works will be offered well below Messner's usual gallery prices.

“Joe wants as many people as possible to have a work of his art. With it will go a bit of Joe's positive energy and spirit,” says White, former curator at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

White says Messner has “constantly pushed the medium of watercolor.”

“He moves easily from realism to abstraction and all share his wonderful color sensibility,” she says. “There is a power and force in even the most lyrical of Joe's work that comes from his mastery of the medium.”

Messner, who never went to college, says he learned from studying with some of the greats in contemporary watercolor, including Edgar Whitney, renowned artist and teacher who authored “The Complete Guide to Watercolor.”

Messner moved from his native New York City to Cedar Rapids in 1975 to work as an art director at the former advertising agency CMF&Z.

“I joined them because I had a good deal of agricultural advertising experience,” he recalls.

Company CEO Bill Munsell hired Messner and remembers that he was well known around the office for his attention to detail.

After Messner retired in 1990, he dedicated more time to painting and teaching.

Tara Moorman of Cedar Rapids began studying with Messner in the early 1990s. She calls him the “grandfather of watercolor” in Iowa. From him, Moorman learned “to listen to the still small voice within - in other words, to pay attention to my inner thoughts and intuition.”

“He encouraged his students to paint with joy and courage,” she says. “Watercolor is known to be a difficult medium and courage is very helpful. His positive and uplifting spirit has inspired me to do my best and to uplift others as he has.”

Jo Myers-Walker, president of the Iowa Watercolor Society, says Messner has always been “inspiring and encouraging me to keep changing, trying new ways of seeing a subject, and to believe in my work.”

“He is a big thinker,” she says. “But most of all, he is a good man with a joyful spirit.”

Messner says he figures his artistic abilities came from his father, who made a living painting oriental landscapes on furniture in the 1920s and 1930s.

“He did pretty well at it,” Messner says of his father. “So I have a feel. Most of this art stuff is feeling. It's like when you see a clarinet player who is playing the melody that everybody understands and then he goes off into left field and he interprets. He does his own thing. I've done a lot of my own thing, which is so much more satisfying than copying a still life.”

While he dabbled in oils initially, once he tried watercolor, Messner was hooked. “It thrilled me to realize that if you moistened a piece of paper, just moistened it and put a brush of color on it and spread it out a bit, that beautiful soft edges would occur. It was very exciting.”

His art, he says, was influenced by music and “spiritual” literature. He encourages his students to “do your own thing and love every minute of it.”

“An artist might be enthralled with a piece that he's done and somebody may want to buy it, but the greatest thing, the joyful moment, is doing it. Every piece that I started to do, I had no compunction about it. I wasn't thinking, ‘Well, I hope this works out.' I just went into it. The people I studied with said, ‘Don't hold back. Just give.' I've been rewarded.”

Poor health has kept Messner from painting the past two years, but he's not disappointed about that. He and his wife, Jeanne, live in a retirement home where he enjoys reading, listening to Mozart, Glenn Miller and Sinatra, and watching golf on TV.

“My spirits are high,” he says.

Messner completed his memoir in 2010, which he titled, “Highlights of My Life.” “There's not a negative thing in it,” he says. “It's all upbeat and positive.”

“Some people have asked, ‘What would you like on your gravestone?' I say, ‘An art educator, encourager.' That's all. That's enough. With my art, I hope that they say that it's true. That Joe saw beauty everywhere and it shows.”

If you go

• What: Joe Messner Art Sale
• When: Viewings from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, noon to 8 p.m. Thursday
• Where: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, 410 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids