A lifetime of art: Painter to showcase hundreds of pieces

Hal Tacker wakes up at 2 a.m. and starts painting.

Not every day, just lately — and with a kind of renewed passion for art that had been dormant, if not truly missing.

It has never really been missing, even before Tacker realized it was art.

"I could be drawing an airplane right there," chuckles Tacker, showing off a baby picture with him sitting on the ground next to his father's crop duster while holding a piece of paper.

In three weeks, Tacker will show more than 200 pieces from a lifetime of art, and among them is one of his newest and could be, he said, his favorite of his more than 6,000 originals.

Soaring into the art world

The Vought F4U Corsair skims low across the waves, the propeller and power of the U.S. Marine aircraft pulling up a spray of water as the sun breaks through the clouds above and spotlights the fighter.

The image of the pilot — Pappy Boyington — is indistinguishable in the cockpit.

The signature at the bottom of the print is not. It is the painting that put Tacker on the art world map.

"That's the one I'm most known for," Tacker said.

Boyington signed 1,000 prints, 500 of which he kept to sell, and 500 of which Tacker sold.

The original painting belongs to an aviation enthusiast, one of many enthusiasts Tacker has sold his artwork to over the years.

Growing up in the cockpit of a crop duster, aviation art seemed to be a natural — just as motorcycles and hot rods from his racing days are well represented in Tacker's portfolio.

But it was an aviator, the 57-year-old Tacker said inspired him most.

Bill Nichols was his father's best friend.

He had an amazing life, Tacker said, and few but his closest friends knew anything about his life as a fighter pilot — as an American in the Battle of London and far, far beyond.

"It was when he died, and I was thinking this guy has done all this stuff and nobody knows him" Tacker said of his desire to paint that story.

So Nichols became a subject among a variety of aviation paintings that would launch Tacker's career in 1981, and a theme of extraordinary individuals who Tacker has always wanted to paint.

Those subjects range from a who's who list of Medal of Honor winners like Boyington, to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, to great athletes such as Jerry Rice and Steve Prefontaine.

Prefontaine holds a special place for Tacker now.

A dedicated competitive runner and cyclist, Tacker said he is among new friends who had no idea he is a fairly well known artist.

That too has renewed his energy to paint, and has given him a whole new subject matter to focus his talents.

That first show in Marysville

Tacker had painted since he was a boy.

He even managed to sell some work while he was in high school, but it was not his great passion just yet.

That passion was wrapped up in motorcycle and car racing, hobbies that still find their way into Tacker's life, such as reconditioning old cars, and in his paintings.

"I did not graduate from high school. I should have graduated in 1972, but I got hurt in a motorcycle accident and I never got caught up with my credits," Tacker said.

But, Tacker admits, school was not really his high priority anyway. He spent most of his time with his art teacher, Clarence Locke, or in shop.

The two provided to be a winning combination when Tacker opened up his own custom paint shop, where he painted motorcycle helmets and specialized in painting bikes and cars.

"In 1974, I decided to get out of painting and maybe get into crop dusting like my dad. So I moved to Robbins to live with my dad," said Tacker, who went to work for Wagner Aviation.

"One of my friends got killed that season, and I had been doing some flying, and I decided I didn't want to do that anymore," he said.

"And I had done a couple of paintings, airplanes, and I sold those easily," said Tacker.

Eventually, though, he was back in the crop dusting world, working as a mechanic for Bob's Flying Service.

"But I was still painting," Tacker said.

That is when his father stepped him. He took Tacker and some of his paintings to the Art Showcase gallery in Marysville, and asked the owner, Fred Hayes, what he thought of his son's work and whether he could make a living at it.

"(Hayes) said, 'it looks the boy knows what he is doing,'" Tacker remembers. A year later, in 1981, he had his first show.

"That is when everything took off," Tacker said.

Hayes would teach him about the professional side of the art world: the right way to present his work, the right people to talk to and the financial realities.

Tacker admits he has never been good at the money side.

A people's painter

Tacker has sold a lot of his work at aviation shows or gun shows and those kinds of markets are a lot smaller than selling work in a gallery.

He is even a bit uncomfortable about talking about it.

"I never talk about money because it has actually been my downfall at times. I had a huge show in Carmel and (the gallery owner) was going to set the price at what he thought he could get for the paintings. But I didn't know if he was going to be able to sell enough of my paintings to keep me alive," Tacker said.

"I have been accused by investors of being a people's painter."

It is not a flattering term in the art world.

In essence, it means Tacker has been willing to sell his work for less than it might actually fetch, and reputation is important in the art world, and keeping prices up is, too.

"I don't know what the art world is anymore, with the Internet and the galleries. I don't know," he said.

Tacker conservatively puts the number of his pieces in circulation, including the more than 80,000 prints, at more than 100,000.

"I see my stuff on eBay all the time," said Tacker, who knows that must change the art world perceptions to some degree.

And while he does not paint just for art's sake, Tacker said, if he didn't enjoy the process of creating art, he would not be doing it.

He had a very successful show six years ago, but it was selling a handful of pieces at a car show in Colusa this summer that kind of got his juices flowing again.

"That got me fired up, and once I started painting, it snowballed."

The show must go on

Tacker admits planning for such a large show has made him half crazy.

It is the largest show he has ever heard a single artist do, and it certainly is the largest show he has ever done.

But the task has given him a chance to take a walk back in time — to see some of the work he has done in a lifetime of work — and that has been fun.

The show will be a mix of some old and some new — including a scene from the movie "The World's Fastest Indian," Tacker's favorite movie of all time.

It is about setting a speed record on the salt flats, and it plays to many of Tacker's interests.

It also has renewed his interest to do more artwork dedicated to his favorite movies, his favorite actors and his favorite old TV programs.

Oddly, Tacker does not even have a TV at his home now.

The art show is scheduled for Dec. 17 at the Colusa Golf & Country Club.

He said there will be a wide range of artwork, and a wide range of prices.

"I still want to be a people's painter," Tacker said.

"And I still enjoy creating off a blank canvass. It makes me feel good."