Now that he has the time, Evan Haines has been painting prolifically. Before joining the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op in March of 2007, he had completed some 30 canvases. Then, his output accelerated and since his November 2007 retirement, he has finished almost as many paintings as he had created, “in my entire life.” Haines recently became a member of the Board of the Manayunk Art Center (MAC) as the coordinator for special events. Meanwhile, the best evidence of his burgeoning gusto for expressing himself visually lies in the variety of his paintings’ subjects and their treatments.

 

 

While much of his work presents conventional landscapes and still life scenes, Haines has begun experimenting with his technique. “Tuscany Cottage” depicts a house bifurcated by a central chimney, surrounded with pine trees behind it and deciduous trees at the sides. The light refracted in the cottage’s small windows lends them the suggestion of stained glass.  “Snow Caps” features snow-covered trees lining the banks of an icy stream which recedes toward distant mountains that stand under a forebodingly dark sky. In the imaginary seascape, “Sunset Palms”, the bright orange sunset above a gray-green sea hints at the surreal. Most experimental is his rendering of the Manayunk Bridge – a familiar scene to area residents and visitors. Haines was dissatisfied with his painting of the arched structure and, in a serendipitous moment, decided to, “use up some excess paint,” by covering the entire canvas with a thin layer of pigment. The result is an impressionistic view of the bridge as it might be seen after an ice storm.

 

He also paints whimsical portraits of animals, such as a plump, wild rabbit against a pastel-magenta background, with multi-colored flowers floating above and around it, titled “The Dance Of The Flowers”. In a portrait of Haines’s friends’ Burmese Mountain puppy, “Bella” gazes at the viewer with a winsome expression. The Co-Op’s February exhibition featured the theme “Dickens & Poe” in response to a MAC Humanities program about the two writers. Haines presented several paintings of ravens in various attitudes, referring to Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous poem. The featured show of his work will consist entirely of oil paintings.

 

Haines traces his interest in painting to his childhood. Born in 1941 at (then) Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital – “They renamed it Mercy Fitzgerald,” he observes with a wry smile – Haines grew up at 63rd and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.  The artistic spark came from the elder of his father’s two sisters, Kathryn Dordoufis, whom he often visited as a boy, at her home in nearby Upper Darby. She worked for a photography studio, “colorizing” sepia-toned portraits of individuals and families, and also painted for pleasure.  He has a small collection of her paintings, some of them signed by both herself and Haines, indicating that he had helped her create the finished pictures.

 

 

In 1912 Haines’s father immigrated with his parents to the United States from Greece at the age of eleven, as did his artistic aunt, who was an infant. The family anglicized its name from Hantzakos to Haines. His mother was of one half German-Irish and one half Native American   descent, her great-grandfather a Navajo chief. Haines’s family has a painted portrait of the chief, the provenance of which is unknown.

 

In 1959, Haines graduated from Central High School and went on to the Valley Forge Military Academy where he attended Junior College for two years. He finished his undergraduate degree at the main campus of Pennsylvania State University, where he studied Hotel and Restaurant Administration and Accounting. He proceeded to a career in food service, working for the Holiday Inn, Horn And Hardart, and Marriot companies, before assuming his thirty-year position as Director of Food Services for the Colonial School District in Montgomery County.

 

Haines and his wife, Evelyn, currently reside in a 150-year-old stone barn that they purchased in 1999 and renovated. Their home stands on land that had been a section of the sprawling Houston estate in Roxborough. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Girl Scouts of America used part of this land as a campground until it was developed for condominiums, one of which the Hainses purchased.  When they sold their condo and bought the barn, they also acquired a garage on the same piece of land and turned it into a studio/gallery for Evan’s artwork.  The easel that he has been using is one he built himself. Constructed from wood left over from an old bed frame, it is too heavy to be easily moved and has been kept in the converted garage. Upon his retirement, Haines’s colleagues feted him repeatedly and presented him with many gifts; among them, a portable easel, that he is looking forward to using for “plein air” painting in milder weather.

 

When he feels he has finished or nearly finished a painting, Haines shows it to Evelyn, who grew up in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia and whom he married in October 1972. She  always comments on and names the paintings, often making suggestions that Evan follows to complete the work. Smiling, he observes, “I’m very excited to have the time and space to devote to art.”