Waking up each morning, Tony LaSalle gathers his thoughts and his tools, preparing for a daily ritual that’s become as ingrained as brushing his teeth or exercising at the gym. He paints from memory, bouncing from canvas to canvas as music plays and the images of the past flood his consciousness. It’s a form of therapy, a necessary discipline of the mind, and of course, a livelihood.
Yet not too long ago, LaSalle had never so much as picked up a paintbrush or sketched a landscape. After earning his doctorate in education at the age of 40, LaSalle took his first cautious steps into art, painting on the beach to pass the time during lazy summer days.
Today, those 40 years of internalized observation burst forth in explosions of color whether he’s painting gardens of lush, vibrant flowers, women bedecked in sumptuous gowns or the serene hills of Italy. His works have been featured in exhibitions at the Haverford School, the Main Line Arts Center and Delaware Valley College. And the eponymous gallery that houses his works, located at 73 Bridge Street in Lambertville, speaks to how far he’s come as an artist.
“Art is about visiting your internal landscape and sharing it with the world,” says LaSalle. “I’m a lover of beauty, and I love beautiful things. Wherever there’s beauty and color, I’m usually there.”
Born and raised in Bucks County, LaSalle doesn’t necessarily have to visit the scenes in his paintings to bring them to life. He simply relies on his memory to transport him to a feeling or place. “I’ve taken Bucks County landscapes into my soul, and I paint what I feel,” LaSalle explains.
That’s certainly the case with his floral paintings, many of which derive from a local, spectacular sight. “Near New Hope, there’s this huge house with breathtaking gardens of tulips,” he says. “When I paint tulips, I see that, and I feel that energy of when you drive past something like that.”
LaSalle says he inherited his proclivity for beauty and color from his mother - “Everything about her is beauty and love” - who now stars as a recurring character in his signature “Three Sisters” paintings. The works depict LaSalle’s mother and his two aunts in various iterations: drinking coffee together, dressing up in designer gowns or posing as ballerinas.
“My mom was one of three sisters, and they were seamstresses,” LaSalle explains. “They were always together, and since I was the last child at home, I was always around them. I started painting them 15 years ago, and I paint them over and over.”
Using the “Three Sisters” as inspiration, LaSalle is free to explore another of his interests: women’s fashion. “I’ve always been an admirer of clothes,” he says. “I would’ve been a fashion designer if not an artist. When I paint the ‘Three Sisters,’ I dress them up in different designers: Oscar de la Renta, Norma Kamali and Christian Dior.”
Naturally, LaSalle has refined his painting style along the way. So while his subjects and signature surge of color remain a constant, his approach is constantly developing. “I think abstract is an evolution,” he says. “The women in fashion and the florals seem to become more abstract as they go. All of a sudden, the paintings are more about shapes and colors.”
As a professor at Delaware Valley College, LaSalle is now combining his passion for art with the career path he spent most of his life working toward. For the first time, he’s teaching art, but he’s also learning a few lessons along the way. Recalling how his own tentative foray into the art world was fueled by encouragement from others, he’s now sure to pass along feedback to his students.
“Students need so much positive reinforcement to go further,” says LaSalle. “Art is an opportunity to really spell out who you are, and when you get that acceptance, you really soar.”
Go online at www.tonylasalle.com