Harold E. FEIST

HAROLD E. FEIST It is with great sadness that the family of Harold Elmer Feist announces his sudden passing at home, without pain or distress, on Friday, May 7, 2021 at the age of 76 years. He was born in San Angelo, Texas and moved frequently, throughout his childhood, because of his father's career as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. He married and divorced three times: to Suzanne L. Benoit (1965 -1967), to Verlyn M. Achen (1969 - 1981) with whom he had Benjamin and Leslie, and to Margo H. Welch (1985 - 1995) with whom he had Emily and Jackson. (As he used to say, 'three strikes, I'm out.') An abstract painter whose work was about the expressive power of color, Feist's working life spanned over 50 years. Mentored and championed by the New York art critic Clement Greenberg and painter Jules Olitski, Feist received an M.F.A. (Hoffberger Fellow) from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in 1969 and became a professor at the Alberta College of Art immediately following. Making a permanent home in Canada, he taught at the University of Regina, Mount Allison University, and Ontario College of Art before dedicating himself in 1978 to a full-time painting career. Beginning in 1966, Feist exhibited widely in Canada and the U.S., and was seen in exhibitions in Berlin, Lisbon, London, and Paris, his work is included in museums throughout Canada and the U.S, as well as in many private and corporate collections. When contributing to the catalogue of his retrospective exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen's University in 1988 he wrote: 'I think about painting as a way of putting something good into the world. Adding to it the best I can. Nothing about 'moving' anybody or communicating, just trying to keep busy the way Nature does and maybe making a little something good before leaving. When something's at home in a work of art there's really something home there, something to be reckoned with, something concrete. You can never have enough of something 'home.' Presence.' Feist was a lifelong learner who enjoyed playing guitar and taught himself computer programming, beginning in the early 80s, as 'something to do while the paint dries.' His interest in software development grew, for the rest of his life, into a love for making creative interactive experiences and evolved into expertise in a wide range of computer-based disciplines. A voracious reader of history and science, he was also a fan of riddles and puzzles and made great ones himself. A generously loving father and grandfather, full of understated wit, with a well-timed joke always at the ready, Feist invented amazing bedtime stories for his children, featuring as main character the child being lulled to sleep, who landed 'right in their backyard' after each adventure. He would close each story with 'and the next day, it rained.' (which he maintained should be his epitaph). Feist was predeceased by his mother Ruth F. Cronin, father Elmer F. Feist, and half-brother Gerald W. Feist. He is survived by his brother, Robert T. Feist, his half-brother Daryl Feist, children Ben (Elizabeth), Leslie, Emily, and Jackson, and grandchildren Linden, Audrey, and Tihui. He is greatly mourned and will leave his four children trying to remember his particular turns of phrase ('never pay you no never mind' and 'what does that have to do with the price of penguins?'). Feist's most recent exhibition at Gallery House, Toronto, remains up until June 1. Ontario pandemic control restrictions limit physical access to the show. Those who wish to pay their respects may do so by viewing his work via this virtual tour (http://haroldfeist.com/GH2021Pano/vtour/tour.html). A full biography and index of his work can be found at haroldfeist.com. Due to the pandemic, a celebration of Harold's life will be postponed until a later date. We will always miss you, Dad.