LAGUNA NIGUEL — Artist Fil Mottola sees beauty all over the world.
A professional since he was in high school – he sold some of his work at that young age – he has traveled and painted all over the world, and has supported himself all his life as an artist.
He’s never had another job.
Fil and his wife, Lottie, who are both 91 years old, drive every day from their home in Laguna Niguel to Mottola Gallery in Laguna Beach.
Fil was born in New Jersey but his family moved to East Los Angeles when he was 6. “But I showed a talent for drawing when I was 2,” he says.
Lottie runs Mottola Gallery and, of course, features her husband’s paintings as well as exhibits from other artists. She won’t even consider paintings from professionals who have less than 20 years of full-time experience.
“I only accept academicians of today and yesteryear,” she says. “I make the decisions. I’ve been an art appraiser for 50 years and have owned galleries in Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach for 65.”
Fifty artists are represented at Mottola Gallery. “We sell mostly landscapes,” Lottie says.
“Fil paints in ultra-three dimension, but they never look like photographs,” she says. “The paintings are deep dimensional in oil, he puts you there in the painting. He blends three-dimensional realism with impressionistic overtones, and he has a wonderful talent for color and tonal qualities.”
The gallery exhibits Fil’s California harbor scenes, Mexican marketplaces, cathedrals, studies of children, seascapes, Western themes, Victorians and European scenes. He paints wherever he goes, from Bavaria to Taxco, Mex., from Italy to France. His California scenes include views of San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano, Morro Bay and Carmel.
Fil graduated from Otis Art Institute, and studied under landscape painters Roscoe Schrader and Ralph Holmes. Paul Clemens, Hollywood portrait painter, was also a teacher. But Fil’s studies were interrupted when he served in the Marines at Guadalcanal at the outbreak of World War II. He was wounded and came home to take up where he’d left off.
Meanwhile, Lottie worked as a ship-itter during the war. “I was the head woman working on the Liberty ships,” she says. Liberty ships were mass-produced for the Merchant Marine, followed by the faster Victory ships which could carry a heavier load.
“(After the war) I worked for Disney for 12 years,” Fil says. “I was a designer and painter for backgrounds with his animated features before it was all done on a computer. I was never a cartoonist. It was fascinating. I worked on ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘Peter Pan,’ ‘Sword in the Stone’ and ‘Lady and the Tramp.'” He was also a designer on three other films that won Oscars during those years.
When Disneyland opened in 1955, Walt Disney asked Fil and two other Disney artists to draw visitors on opening day.
“We spent weeks at Disneyland,” Fil said. “We were out in the open in front of the palace.” The drawings were $10 each, but the artists were allowed to keep the money.
Fil was there when famed rocket scientist Werner Von Braun came to Disney to do a film for President John Kennedy.
“So I designed graphics for space films for NASA.” Fil said. “Two were ‘Trip to the Moon,’ and ‘Man in Space.’ They were classified films. But I never gave up my own work.”
Fil and Lottie met in 1964 when she had a gift shop in Santa Barbara. She opened a gallery there, and including the years in Laguna Beach, she has sold between 13,000 and 14,000 works of art, she said.
Framed pastels on newsprint are leaning against other paintings and walls. Fil may draw figures at a site on newspaper to use later in his paintings, and sometimes these figures are finished. Small boys fishing, a Navajo girl, a whimsical fairy, and there weren’t many left last week. He paints with oil on canvas, never acrylics, and says he never paints “water lilies.”
“Navajo land was a treat,” Fil says. Colorful oils in the gallery give testament to his love for these Native Americans.
The Mottolas have been part of the Laguna Beach art scene for decades. Fil cites Frank Cuprien, known for his landscapes and coastal views, and Robert W. Wood, who lived in Laguna Beach for a time, as influences.
“I like him to paint points of interest,” says Lottie. “People want to have those in their homes.”
“In buying a painting, the first consideration is that it pleases the eye of the beholder,” says Lottie. “The second is that the painting is valuable and as time goes by, must become ever more valuable as the artist continues to gain fame. A wise person combines pleasure with investment.”
Contact the writer: levezich@ocregister.com or 949-454-7323