GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

Don Stone, who rose to the ranks of American artists in the National Academy, grew up during the Depression playing on Gloucester's docks and swimming in the harbor.

Although born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Stone came to the nation's oldest seaport in 1929 as a 2-month-old baby when his mother, Hester Bell Gaffney, moved the family back East. He lived on Commonwealth Avenue at the top of the hill with his grandmother, Anna Gaffney.

"My mother used to call me a wharf rat," the 77-year-old Stone recalls today. "As a kid, I was always drawing sailing boats and other scenes. I knew from the beginning that art was going to be my thing."

He received his schooling here, graduating from Gloucester High School in 1948. In the high school yearbook, the "Flicker," Stone recalled writing that he wanted to be the second Walt Disney.

"I had four years of fine arts in high school and no math whatsoever," he said.

Stone remembers well the era when the nation's economy plummeted, leaving many without work and scrambling for food. He found work on the city's wharfs, the state fish pier and in the freezers used for cold storage of fish. He also painted signs.

"These jobs paid my way through art school," said Stone who attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston. "I also grew up with all the old-timers, and I had a chance to paint with them as a young man in my 20s. The scenery and the people here inspired me - the fishermen, the lobstermen, the old Fins from the Cove are all part of it."

The late Paul Strisik, a full member of the historic National Academy in New York City, was his mentor. Strisik first brought Stone to Monhegan Island in Maine in 1958, a spot popular with plein air artists and a place where Stone would teach for 40 years.

He also credits local artists Aldro Hibbard, Emile Gruppe, Ken Gore and Otis Cook with energizing him as a young artist.

Three days after graduating art school, the young painter climbed aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer where he was a gunnery yeoman in the service.

"I had a gun shack and I used that as my studio, and I did portraits of all the officers and enlisted men. I had a good racket," he said. Stone also did a large painting of the ship, the USS D.H. Fox, which can still be seen on Naval letterhead.

After the service, he married a Rockport girl, the late Marabah Kimball, with whom he had four children, Pam, Sandra, Phil and Caleb, all of whom possessed artistic talent.

But the baby, Caleb, now 40, took up the brush in what would become a life's avocation. Caleb would also find himself surrounded by painters growing up in the Rockport art colony. But he would have the added benefit of being raised by a nurturing father, who also was an art teacher.

Caleb Stone remembers a first-grade assignment at the Tarr School on School Street, now the town's public library, where he was asked to write about what he wanted to do as a career.

"I wanted to be a painter and I wanted to draw," he recalled.

Father and son exhibition

For the first time, the father-and-son duo combine their talents for a two-man exhibit at the Crane Collection in Manchester-by-the-Sea. A public reception will be held Saturday.

"He's not only my son, but he's my painting partner and a good friend," said the elder Stone.

The two, both schooled in the plein air tradition and members of the Rockport and North Shore art associations, often go off together on painting trips.

Caleb Stone said he is honored to share a show with his father.

"I'm a little nervous, too. He has a lot more years of experience and he's well-established, but I feel like it will be a nice show together," he said. "We paint similarly, but we have our own styles and interest.

"When we paint together, he'll see it one way and I'll choose another perspective. It's like being a poet. You take select parts of nature and orchestrate them into a beautiful statement, strong and to the point."

The opening of the show also marks a celebration for the downtown gallery, which Bonnie Crane of Magnolia opened a year ago.

Crane, who specializes in 19th century American painting, established the Crane Collection in 1982, after which she opened a gallery on Newbury Street in Boston. In the mid-1990s, she moved the gallery to Wellesley. However, she longed to be closer to the ocean, in particularly Cape Ann, a region known for its artistic heritage. She settled on Manchester, which she said has been "very welcoming."

Crane, herself a painter and critic, first met Don Stone decades ago when he walked into her Newbury Street gallery. At the time, she showed the work of late 19th and 20th century artists only. Stone was among the first of the living 20th century artists whose work she welcomed.

"I'm a great admirer of his work," she said. "(His work is) very bold, and his brush strokes have become increasingly broad and a little more abstract than when I first starting seeing his work. He captures the spirit of wherever he works. He has done some magnificent ocean scenes."

Don Stone paints primarily in oil now, although he earned the status of Dolphin Fellow of the American Watercolor Society. He has won more than 65 major awards, including eight gold medals. He is a member of the Copley Society as a Copley Master, Guild of Boston Artists, New England Watercolor Society and Hudson Valley Art Association. He has exhibited widely, and is represented in many collections, both public and private.

After spending 50 years on Cape Ann, the elder Stone moved North, where he divides his time between Exeter, N.H., and Monhegan, Maine.

The younger Stone, who studied at Lyme Academy in Connecticut, works mostly in oil, but also watercolor and pastel. He enjoys painting landscapes and views of Gloucester and the vicinity. He has also won several awards, including the John Stobart Fellowship Award, the New England Heritage Award and the Wood Award for Excellence in Watercolor.

In the upcoming show, vibrant images of New England, Cape Ann and Monhegan, and the sea will be among the canvases featured. There will be a few paintings from a recent trip father and son took to Ireland as well.

Caleb Stone said he was fortunate to have a role model in his father.

"He is a good and loving father, and he was a great teacher in painting. I always loved to draw and paint, and around the age of 12, I wanted to go to his workshops, and he agreed. I had the best of both worlds," Caleb Stone said. "Even now, if I have a question or want to talk about art, I talk to my dad."

If You Go

What: "Father & Son, Paintings and Watercolors by Don Stone, N.A., and Caleb Stone"

When: Through Nov. 30, with a public reception on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m.

Where: The Crane Collection, 11 Central St., downtown Manchester-by-the-Sea

How: Call 978-525-3009 or visit www.cranecollection.com