HILLSBORO, N.D. — When he died
this past February at the age of 96, John Carroll Pederson
was remembered for his love of family, golf and particularly his art.
“Through his art, John, along with his angel, touched our souls and left an incredible mark,” stated the obituary in his funeral program. “His creativity will live on in the beauty he left behind… He lived and breathed art and the passion will live on through his work.”
Now his family is hoping his creativity will live with other people. They’ve partnered with artist Eric A. Johnson and the Traill County Arts Coalition to exhibit and auction a selection of his works in his hometown of Hillsboro, North Dakota.
An exhibit of his paintings will be on display from Sept. 18 through Oct. 18 at The Art House, 409 East Caledonia Ave., Hillsboro, which is owned by Johnson, who owns and operates the nearby Big Oak Press.
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While Pederson’s work still hangs in the clubhouse at the Goose River Golf Course in Hillsboro, for many people, this will be the first time to see a collection of his work.
Though his family encouraged the late artist to have exhibits, he was reluctant to do so.
“It was hard for him to part with his paintings,” said his sister, Sandra Mustad of Hillsboro.
The show will be 60 to 75 pieces, mostly oil paintings on masonite or canvas. The display will be a mix of landscapes, portraits and pictures of vintage airplanes and science-fiction illustrations.
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The silent auction will run for a month with bidding starting around $50 for the smaller pieces, about 8-by-10-inches. The highest starting bid will be $250 for larger pieces.
Though she’s 16 years younger than her brother, she said he was always interested in art and bought books to study artists, techniques and subjects, training himself to be a remarkable, self-taught painter.
“I thought it was really impressive. It’s a lot of really nice paintings,” Eric A. Johnson said, recalling the first time he saw Pederson’s work.
Johnson didn’t know of Pederson before he died, but then he heard that the family of a late artist was left with an estimated 250-plus paintings and didn’t know what to do with them.
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What Johnson discovered was hundreds of paintings of landscapes, vintage airplanes and portraits of U.S. presidents like Abraham Lincoln and classic comedians, like W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton.
Johnson was particularly impressed with Pederson’s attention to detail.
While he had no formal training, Pederson devoted as much time to art as he could. Even when he served in the Army and Army Reserve Corp from 1951 to 1956, he did some illustration work.
He was fascinated by the art of Norman Rockwell and after his discharge from the Army, he took a bus to Massachusetts, knocked on Rockwell’s front door and introduced himself as a fellow artist. He stayed with his idol for a week, watching Rockwell at work and considered it a high point in his life.
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“He learned a lot from his work,” Mustad said of the experience.
Pederson found jobs that tapped into his artistic abilities and worked for 15 years at Dakota Photo Engraving in Fargo.
During his time in Fargo, Pederson also painted science-fiction images and his work was selected for a cover of Galaxy magazine in 1956.
“The science-fiction work is a sideline, but it pays a few bucks,” he told Forum reporter Wayne Lubenow at the time.
Lubenow visited Pederson in his bedroom/studio, filled with his work.
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“The paintings are simply outstanding,” Wayne Lubenow wrote.
Eventually Pederson moved back to Hillsboro, where he worked as a commercial artist and teach art in adult education classes.
In 1981 a landscape was published on the cover of the arts magazine North Light.
His family shared a clipping of an interview he did with a local newspaper about his selection, though the name of the publication was not included.
“I thought if I painted full time for three years, I would be where I wanted to be. That just wasn’t so,” he told the reporter, shaking his head.
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Pederson never married or had children, but was devoted to his craft, painting as much as nine hours a day.
“He would apparently say that he was too busy painting to come to family gatherings, which sounds familiar to me,” Johnson said.
Pederson suffered a stroke 17 years ago, which slowed him down, but he kept painting.
“It was getting better, which kept him going,” Mustad said.
“It’s a great testament to him that even after that, he kept on creating,” Johnson said.
