Genevieve Tuck was born an artist and kept drawing all her life, even when she had to switch from the oils she loved to colored pencils and had to view the world she had captured on so many canvases mostly from indoors.
Tuck died Tuesday. She had turned 100 on June 12. Information on a memorial service was pending.
Tuck was well known among artists and art lovers in SnohoÂmish County and throughout the country. Her work today can be found in galleries and private collections all over the Northwest as well as Canada, Japan and France. She belonged to many groups including Women Painters of Washington.
In 1995, at the age of 87, Tuck was named Artist of the Year by the Arts Council of Snohomish County.
Tuck had five children who she raised with her husband, Lamoine, on their farm near Monroe. Four of her children live close by on the Tuck compound, including youngest son Ron and his wife, Michelle, who lived with and cared for Genevieve during her last years.
Genevieve Tuck was a plein air painter who would paint outdoors to capture the changes in light and create entire landscapes. Ron Tuck told a Seattle newspaper that he was always impressed with how his mom would spend hours at the canvas.
“They go on site, set up their French easels and lay down the paint in three hours,” Ron Tuck said. “She’d get so in the zone. You look at it and wonder, ‘How could you do that on the spot?’ “
Genevieve Tuck studied art at the University of Washington and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1929.
She married Lamoine Tuck in 1930. They moved to their 192 acres near Monroe and ran a cider mill for 20 years.
“I was in love with what my husband wanted,” Genevieve once said.
Genevieve cared for her husband who became blind in the last 18 years of his life. During this time, she would do occasional watercolors, but she switched to oils in about 1970 and became a plein air painter.
The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary together. Lamoine died the next year at age 78.
In 1981, at age 73, she focused entirely on her art. She painted all over the world, France and Scotland when she was in her 70s. In her 80s, she painted in Alaska. In her 90s, she painted in Canada. One of her favorite mountains to paint remained Mount Index.
Tuck’s uncle and mentor was renowned Western artist Frank Tenney Johnson, who painted frontier landscapes, American Indians and cowboys.
On being 100, Tuck said recently with a laugh:
“No. That’s pushing it.”
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
A profile of Genevieve Tuck ran in Sunday’s Good Life. To read it, go to www.heraldnet.com and search for “Genevieve Tuck.”
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