~~RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath~~

Ted Richardson in The News 1985

God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, but the fire next time,
Tide me over, Rock of Ages, cleft for me
~~traditional

(The year before he died, Daddy sent the following newspaper article
to me while I was living at Estoril, Portugal.

OBSERVER-REPORTER,
WASHINGTON, PA
Tuesday, August 20, 1985,
B3 Screen art at the Horne home in Washington
SCREEN SCENE
Washington Home Revives An Old Art Form

Barbara Raffaele, Staff Writer

Two Washingtonians are doing what they can to spread appreciation of window screen painting.

A scene of misty mountains above winding creek and peaceful farms unfolds on four screens mounted last month at the mobile home of Dolores and Joseph Horne on Beacon Street, Town and Country Mobile Park.

The screens provide privacy and ventilation. They can be enjoyed by passersby who cannot see through them.

The four screens competed for the Hornes were done by 84-year-old Ted Richardson who painted his first screen in 1918. That was not long after the art became popular in this country, at the turn of the century in Baltimore.

We frequently travel to Baltimore to visit my sister, and we admired the painted window screens there, Dolores Horne said. Painted screens and marble steps, popular at the turn of the century, can still be seen in South Baltimore today. We tracked down the artist and asked him to do four screens for our mobile home.

Richardson, whose painting career began at the age of five, has been painting screens for 50 years. His father was a brick mason in England who painted as a hobby, and Richardson learned to sketch and paint in oils by watching him. Richardson was raised in Canada until 1915 when his family moved to Baltimore.

Painted screens began to appear in many windows and doors in 1918, Richardson said by telephone. But it was in 1920 that they really became popular. Soon Baltimore was covered with windows and door screens painted with landscapes.

During the war years service men purchased the screens and shipped them in cylinders to loved ones all over the world.

The screens were popular until the advent of home air conditioning, Richardson said. People no longer needed them. They kept their windows closed and locked the screens away in basements, attics and closets.

The artist gathers material for his scenes from his travels. He has painted on aluminum and nylon screens, working on them as he would an easel, being careful not to fill the holes with paint. The layer of paint is so fine that the scene is not visible at night if lights are on in the home.

You must keep your enamel paint thin, and work with your brush. If the paint is too thick it will fill the holes, he said. When the painting is completed, it is spray coated with clear plastic on both sides. The screens can be washed and resprayed with plastic every few years. Some of them have been used for 35 years.

Richardson hopes the art of screen painting will be continued. He teaches the technique at the Manhattan Center for Senior Citizens in Baltimore and spends his weekends demonstrating at the Baltimore harbor. The city recently honored him for his outstanding contributions to Baltimore traditions through dedicated work as a screen painter, through which the neighborhoods of Baltimore continue to be beautified.

The Hornes believe they have not only beautified their neighborhood but are preserving a bit of the past.

Editors note: There is a photograph at the top of this article with four panels of screens covering a bow window. Daddy also included a copy of the Patterson Park screen he had painted, which he considered his masterpiece, signed "PATTERSON PARK, by Ted Richardson 1985, SCREEN ARTIST" and also a copy of the City of Baltimore Mayor’s Citation to TED E. RICHARDSON signed by Mayor William Donald Shaefer, 7 December 1981. Daddy was very fond of Mayor Shaefer.

The screen painting displayed above is The Rainbow Lighthouse, created by Ted Richardson of Baltimore, Maryland. The image was generously contributed to this site by Tom Lipka from his collection.

Read and see more about the Richardson brothers and their screen painting at: The Screen Painters

Ted Richardson grew up in Canada, hence the Canadian tune ~ Capemary,  
sequenced by Barry Taylor at Taylor's Traditional Tunebook.

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~RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath~
| Memorial to Edward Arthur James Richardson |   | Ted Richardson - In Memoriam |   | The Screen Painters of Baltimore |   | Primrose Day ~ April 19th |   | Uncle Ben's Stories |   | Ben Richardson in LA Times |   | Ben Richardson, Washington Post |   | Ben Richardson, Baltimore Sun |   | Ben Richardson, 1967 News Clipping |   | Ben Richardson in The News American |   | America's Forgotten Folk Artists |   | Harry Richardson and Family |   | Aunt Flo's Letters |   | Aunt Florrie's Journal |   | Frank Arthur Edward Heming, World War 1 |   | Grandfather's Memoirs |   | Arthur Richardson Memoirs 1 |   | Arthur Richardson Memoirs 2 |   | Edward and Emily's Saga |   | John and Polly Mills |   | Richard Richardson's Story |   | Dr. Jamison and the Boer War |   | Hounslow Heath, England |   | Hounslow, England 1831 |   | Farm Laborer's Cottage of 1860's |   | Richardson Genealogy & Scrapbook |   | Links of Interest |
~Neddy's Nook on the Net~

"RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath ~ Ted Richardson in the News, 1985",
created by his daughter, Edna Richardson Barney.
The graphics are from Ritva Väänänen at Ritva's Gallery
~ Copyright © 2001~2004 by Edna Barney, All Rights Reserved ~