The late John Maxwell loved nothing better than to drive around in search of artistic inspiration. A new exhibition celebrates his spirit as it raises funds for the disease that took his life last year. Story by Kate Wallace.

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Kate Wallace

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The late artist John Maxwell is remembered by friends and peers as a larger-than-life character who basked in having his work - and himself - noticed.

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‘Back View With Long Black Hair,’ watercolour, 11” x 15”, by John Maxwell.

‘Flowers in Flute with Fish,’ watercolour, 10.5” x 8.5”, by John Maxwell.

‘Red Still Life,’ acrylic on paper, 24” x 18” by John Maxwell.

‘Three Trees at Welsford,’ acrylic on board, 30” x 38”, by John Maxwell.

‘Flowers in Blue Vase,’ watercolour, 20.5” x 19” by John Maxwell.

Inge Pataki, his long-time friend and agent, says that if he were alive, Maxwell would be delighted with a show of more than 40 of his works that opened Thursday at Gallery 78 in Fredericton.

"He'd love it. He loved the attention, he loved people," she says.

Maxwell died March 9, 2007, at the age of 73. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

The show, originally conceived as a memorial, evolved into a fundraiser for the Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick. Pataki says the idea for the exhibition first arose when she helped clean out Maxwell's Fredericton home soon after his death and was amazed by the volume of work - his own and that of other artists - she found. When she realized that World Alzheimer Day falls in September, as does Maxwell's birthday, "all of these points connected."

A third of the show's proceeds will go towards the society.

Chandra Parrott, executive director of the Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick, says not only will the proceeds go to a good cause but that the event raises awareness about the disease, in particular that it doesn't discriminate. Alzheimer's can afflict anyone, she says, including creative, intellectually stimulated people such as Maxwell.

An early student of the University of New Brunswick Art Centre in Fredericton, Maxwell went on to study in Paris and the Art Students' League in New York City. Later, he took classes in English literature, education, theology and philosophy.

"I think it's a wonderful legacy," Parrott says of the show.

The exhibition, mostly of landscapes alongside a few nudes and still-life pieces, celebrates the vitality of his work. Maxwell, who lived alone, loved setting out in his car to roam the province's highways and back roads with a box of paints and brushes, pulling over when a scene captured his attention, at times struggling against high winds as he set up his easel alfresco.

Pataki says he was one of the few artists in the province to paint on site.

"He didn't follow any trend, he didn't follow an 'ism,' and so his landscape paintings are incredibly convincing," Pataki says. "It is lasting because it is so true an expression of something that was so close to his heart."

Pataki says Maxwell painted quickly, deftly interpreting what he saw with an unusual clarity of vision and lively expressionist style.

"People in the future will recognize what he tried to do, will recognize the true painterly skill and compassion of the artist."

Late in Maxwell's life, serious health issues led to his driver's licence being revoked. With it went his ability to road-run in search of inspiration.

"That was the beginning of the decline of his creativity," Pataki says. "In order to paint, he had to drive."

She says it was sad to see her independent friend diminished in that way. He persevered, trading a car for a bike, which he would ride down to the gallery once a week or so to talk about art and look at new works.

Despite his loss of mobility, he persevered in his art, joining a life drawing group that met at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. His self-published book Half-Hour Sketches of the Human Figure offers a survey of this period.

It was his second book.

In 1998, he published The Dark Hills of Home: The Art of John Maxwell, a full-colour book of landscape paintings. In the introduction, Marie E. Maltais, then director of the UNB Art Centre, praises his search for artistic truth.

For Maxwell, "this truth is beauty," she writes.

Publishing a book of one's work is an exhausting undertaking that is nonetheless "very satisfying," Pataki says.

"I think he wanted to be remembered."

Kate Wallace covers the arts for the Telegraph-Journal and is a frequent contributor to Salon.