TOM & T.M. NICHOLAS: A FAMILY TRADITION By John O’Hern
Tom and T.M. Nicholas have a shared passion for the land and sea of Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
Gloucester, Massachusetts, with its deep water harbor on the Atlantic Ocean, was established in 1623 and was first a port for trade and then all things maritime, from fishing to sail-making. The harbor and coves teeming with sailing vessels and the extraordinarily picturesque landscape and seascape then began to attract artists. Gloucester and the neighboring Cape Ann town of Rockport lured artists who were or would become members of the pantheon of American painters—Fitz Henry Lane, William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John H. Twachtman, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Jane Peterson and Marsden Hartley among them.
Frederick J. Mulhaupt (1871-1938) arrived for the first time in 1907, eventually settling in Gloucester in 1923. He declared Gloucester “duplicates any views I care
to paint.” He was a founding member of the North Shore Arts Association, which, along with the Rockport Art Association, continues to focus and vivify the artistic life of the community. In her 2000 book, Artists of Cape Ann: A 150 Year Tradition, Kristian Davies relates, “Although he had the deepest respect of his students who recall his encouraging style of instruction, always critiquing but never altering their canvases, they also remember him as being a very quiet, perhaps introverted man who preferred painting alone to socializing in artists’ circles.”
Critiques are an integral part of training in the arts as they were in the training T.M. Nicholas received from his father, Tom Nicholas. Tom and his wife, Gloria, moved to Rockport from Connecticut in 1962, attracted by Tom’s interest in the Cape Ann artists. T.M. was born the following year. “I studied with my father because I most respected his work above everybody else’s,” T.M. explains. “He observed very well,” Tom adds. “It’s rewarding to see how he developed after studying with me for two years.”
The father-son team of award-winning artists are the subjects of the exhibition
Tom and T. M. Nicholas: A Father and Son’s Journey in Paint at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester through April 12.
When Tom and Gloria moved to Rockport they opened the Tom Nicholas Gallery. After raising their son, Gloria took over as gallery manager. The gallery is open for the season from May to October. She observes that some gallery visitors “don’t know anything about art and others are very knowledgeable. It’s very rewarding. Many artists come in to see Tom’s and T.M.’s work. Tom and I are fortunate to do what he wanted to do in art, to enjoy a good
life and to have a son who is part of it.”
Tom studied at the School of the Visual Arts in New York and, in 1961, received a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation for two years of travel abroad and in the United States. Both father and son believe in the benefit of travel as T.M. says, “for keeping yourself interested and inspired.” Tom was one of the youngest artists elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design.
He paints in both watercolor and oil often beginning in plein air and finishing in the studio. Tom says, “Composition is the beginning of the inspiration” for his paintings. “And then I take it from there. It’s instinctive whether a subject is more conducive to using oil or watercolor. It depends upon the characteristics of the medium.”
Tom is free with what he includes in his paintings. Commenting on his painting Pigeon Cove, a powerful composition with a large rock anchoring the foreground, he says, “I don’t think that