Village Squire, 1974-06, Page 48For many years there was the traditional
picture of the artist starving in an attic
somewhere while he tried to make a living
doing the work he loved. It became something
of a chiche. Things are better now and many
artists can mike a good living from their work
in the larger cities without having to
moonlight at Eaton's.
But as short a time ago as three years if
anyone had said that a man in Goderich, the
largest centre in rural Huron county would try
to make a living from art, most people would
have said he had rocks in his head. He would
starve to death in a matter of weeks.
To say that Jim Marlatt is spending full
time with art and shows none of the ill effects
of hunger tells you that one man at least has
beaten the odds.
Three years ago Jim Marlatt decided he
had had enough of working_ for the
government (in the Huron -Perth Assess-
ment Office) and decided to gamble on being
able to make a living frfom his first love, art.
He had been a Sunday painter for years while
working for the assessment department and
earlier while he ran a small store with his
wife. Much earlier he had taken a commercial
art course.
But he was practical enough to know that
he just couldn't make a go of it as the artist
who works away in a back room and hopes
that someone will come along and discover
him and suddenly people will throng to buy
his paintings.
No, he knew it would take a different tack
for him to be able to get along. The answer
was provided by the Huron County Pioneer
Museum. Raymond Scotchmer, the museum
director asked Jim to do a new illustrated
Brochure for the museum with sketches of
various museum pieces. After the brochure
wast finished, someone mentioned the
possibility the sketches would look good on
hasty notes. That started the wheels turning.
Having been in the retail business before he
knew little notes were very popular with
women who like to send notes to their friends.
Soon, using a different series of sketches of
old furniture and artifacts, the first set of
hasty notes by J im Marlatt appeared.
He realized that no artist was producing
sketches of local architecture. There followed
several other series and then larger,
lithographed sketches of Ontario and Huron
county scenes. Jim began to sketch local
barns and bridges and boats and country
stores and with the help of a local printer
turned them into handsome prints, inexpen-
sively priced. There are now 18 scenic prints
in the series.
But there the artist stopped and the past
commercial experience stepped in. Having
several hundred prints of an old store in the
attic doesn't mean much money, so Marlatt
had to take to the road and convince
merchants to stock his prints. Sometimes, he
admits, it wasn't the most pleasant job. Once
in a while he'd run into a store owner who
would simply say "I don't like them", and the
ego of the artist inside this salesman would
take a little bit of a beating. If you're going to
be your own salesman you have to be
prepared for this sort of response, he says.
But most people approached did carry the
sketches and now Ontario scenic prints by
J im Marlatt are on sale as far away as Ottawa
10, VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1974
Jim Marlatt...
the artist
is also a salesman.
Jun Marlatt packages one of his Ontario scenic prints ready for sale.