Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/709503
"My parents felt bad that I lost that scholar- ship, so they helped pay my way to New York, where I studied at the Ar t Students League of New York," Corsaut says. "The league printed my work in their catalog—I was the youngest ar tist ever to be included. I was living high, wide and handsome." Later, he worked for Por traits Incorporated, traveling around and painting commissioned por traits. "I had a New York studio formerly occupied by the great por traitist John Singer Sargent, in a building later torn down to make way for Lincoln Center," he recalls. In addition to por traiture, Corsaut became interested in figurative painting, women in general and bal- let dancers in par ticular. "That was a great way to meet girls," he winks. ON TO CARMEL Corsaut first arrived on the Monterey Peninsula in summer, 1955. "I rented a studio in Carmel, and started painting portraits. Soon, I was making much more money than I had been in New York," he says. Still, he returned to Manhattan several times. "I said to myself, 'Enough of this vaca- tion—time to get back to New York and the serious art world.'" But there were always obstacles. "I couldn't find a studio, for one thing." He eventually decided to follow kismet and plant roots here. The painter married in 1960 and bought the Pacific Grove house—a cozy, comfortably clut- tered abode—he still calls home. Situated on a hill, facing north, there was enough room in the 206 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 6 Top: Incredibly lifelike, these foot-tall, fully- articulated figures were cast in the likeness- es of the artist's friends and family. They were used in place of human models for group paintings. Left: John Steinbeck is depicted as an Old World Master painter.