Artist filled his paintings, photos with emotion and humanity

DETROIT/GROSSE POINTE SHORES — The people and places John Osler painted came to life with vibrancy and intuitiveness, and that’s something visitors will see in a new exhibition of work created over the artist’s career.

The exhibition, which comes nearly two years after Osler’s death at the age of 87 on March 27, 2023, will be open to the public from 4 to 8 p.m. March 15, 1 to 5 p.m. March 16 and 1 to 5 p.m. March 22-23 at Design Studio 6 in Detroit. The opening reception is March 15 and there will be a talk by family members and others during the closing, between 2 and 4 p.m. March 23.

“He loved to paint — absolutely loved to paint,” said Phyllis Osler, of Grosse Pointe Shores, to whom John Osler was married for 62 years. She said her late husband painted almost every day, either in his studio or, during the summer, in the backyard of their Grosse Pointe Shores home.

The home the Oslers shared is filled with his artwork, and Phyllis Osler said she wants to see some of it find a cherished home with other art lovers. The purpose of this new exhibition, she said, is “just to get his work out there so people can enjoy it.”

April McGee-Flournoy, the owner of Design Studio 6, said the show will feature more than 50 of Osler’s artworks, mostly oil paintings and a limited number of prints. She’s the daughter of the late Charles McGee, a legendary Detroit artist John Osler admired but didn’t know personally. McGee-Flournoy’s gallery space is housed in the building where her father once had his art studio.

Visitors to the exhibition “will see his regard for humanity and his respect for everyday people,” McGee-Flournoy said.

She met Osler circa 2013 or 2014 at a meeting of the Fine Arts Breakfast Club.

“He was just a pleasant person to sit with and have a conversation with,” McGee-Flournoy said. “(He was) definitely a people person. He cared about having an experience with you. … The little time we had together had a big impact on me.”

Longtime friend and fellow artist Lori Zurvalec, of Grosse Pointe City, said Osler was “a Renaissance man” who excelled in multiple media, most notably oil and photography. She said she was as struck by his subtle landscapes as by his dynamic photos of jazz musicians performing.

“It was like he could depict the feeling of jazz in a photograph,” Zurvalec said.

John Osler grew up in the Bloomfield area, when he said it was “in the country” and not the developed suburban area it is today. His father was an illustrator and his mother was an art teacher, so he grew up in a creative household, but his parents — products of the Great Depression — urged their son to pursue a less unpredictable career. Osler studied engineering at Cornell University and briefly worked as an engineer for North American Aviation in California in the 1950s before returning to metro Detroit, where he began to work as a commercial artist at a studio his father founded.

He later co-founded and served as a principal of Midcoast Studio in Troy. Osler spent 30 years in commercial art and photography before leaving that behind in the 1990s — when he was in his 50s — to focus on painting, with an emphasis on portraits of significant figures — many of them musicians — from Detroit and his trips to the Delta and New Orleans. As part of this work, he started shooting photos at the Dirty Dog Jazz Café in Grosse Pointe Farms and the Detroit Jazz Festival to use as references for future paintings. His photos were so strong on their own that they became artworks themselves, some of which appeared in a 2014 art book, “Detroit Jazz: Documenting the Legacy of Gretchen Valade.”

Osler’s love of jazz started when he was a young man in the 1950s, when he used to sneak downtown with a friend to go to jazz clubs like the Graystone Ballroom and Klein’s Show Bar.

“I was always a fan of jazz, just because of the freedom of it,” Osler said in 2014.

Osler received multiple awards for his art, including gold medals from the acclaimed Scarab Club in Detroit, and his pieces can be found in collections not only in the United States, but around the world.

“I always found his work to be very sensitive and exquisite,” Zurvalec said. “His ability to capture mood in his paintings was outstanding.”

Osler maintained a blog for many years in which he reflected on art, issues of the day and other topics. An entry in February 2022 spoke to his work in art, as he wrote, “Thirty some years ago I decided that I was an artist. I bought art supplies and turned my back on most of my responsibilities, only to find that art ain’t easy. It takes work and it is humbling. What lifted me up were those people who accepted me for trying and those whose honesty pointed me in the right direction. But it was the people who ended up in my paintings who have made my creative journey so joyous. If my work has value it is because the people that I painted had value.”

From musicians to elected officials to homeless people he encountered, Osler painted them all with the same passion and care.

“He painted people he felt he had an emotional attachment to, even if he didn’t know them well,” Phyllis Osler said. “He had to have that emotional attachment (to his subject). He really respected the people he painted.”

Osler was also committed to social justice issues and making the world around him a better place, which included collecting and delivering food for people in need.

His love for family, friends and the wider world around him is a big reason why exhibition organizers want to commemorate his legacy.

“We’re going to honor him,” McGee-Flournoy said. “We’re going to celebrate him and his work.”

Design Studio 6 is located at 8626 W. McNichols Road in Detroit. Osler’s art can also be viewed by appointment between the hours of 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from March 15 to 23; call (313) 505-9657 to schedule an appointment.