COLORING WITHIN THE LINES
By Chris Wadsworth
“I can’t paint, but I can draw and generally color within the lines.”
That’s the motto of Ashburn artist George Hegedus. And he’s being modest. This information technology executive, husband and father picked up a fun hobby during his pandemic downtime – using colored pencils (and sometimes other media) to create charming “folk art” showing scenes from around Ashburn as well as other communities where he has lived.
“Little to no training? Check. A flattened perspective? Check. An expression of community life? Check,” he said.
Hegedus, who lives in Ashburn’s Farmwell Hunt neighborhood, has been drawing since childhood in Arlington Heights, Ill. Lifelong friend Kevin Feliciano remembers sitting at a table at the back of their grade school classroom drawing with Hegedus.
“Somewhere around the sixth grade, we both began making these little flip books,” Feliciano said. “They were comprised of stick figures doing ridiculous things that would often resolve in a brutal or violent end. You know – the kinds of things that would highly amuse any pre-adolescent boy. It wasn’t until high school, though, where I really began to appreciate George’s artistic endeavors.”
Hegedus drew comic strips about high school life and did artwork for the school newspaper. He continued during his time at West Point, submitting drawings for the cadet humor magazine, The Pointer.
However, his current works are less comic strip and much more inspired by artist Jane Wooster Scott, an American artist known for her bucolic scenes of American towns. The Guinness Book of World Records described her as “the most reproduced artist in America.”
“I’ve been a big fan of hers for a long time,” Hegedus said. “I really like [this style] because you can put a lot into a drawing, and the scale and angles don’t have to be perfect.”
He’s also a devotee of painter Erik Dowdle. Dowdle’s work gave him the idea to focus on communities where he has lived.
“I like to pick an area – Ashburn, Arlington Heights or West Point – and put in as many buildings from that spot as possible,” he said.
Hegedus has done a large piece that extended to three sheets of paper featuring Broad Run High School. He’s also done a drawing focusing on data centers – “for levity” he says. But his favorite subjects are the homes and buildings in and around the quaint Old Ashburn area along Ashburn Road.
“Just because of all the businesses I’ve frequented – Carolina Brothers, Wine’ing Butcher, Community Church – and of course, I love the rehab of the purple house,” Hegedus said.
He’s referring to the landmark bright purple house at the corner of Ashburn Road and Jenkins Lane. When he pulled an image of the house up on Google, he spotted a woman walking with an umbrella and – you guessed it – he included her in his piece.
“That’s happened a few times where I look up a house on Google Maps and a person just happens to be there, so I put them,” he said.
Hegedus says each piece takes him roughly 40 hours, and he can only draw and color a couple of hours at a time, or he gets “sloppy,” to use his word.
Hegedus’ daughter Audrey, a college student at Clemson, calls her dad’s art “super cool” and says he’s been creating art for as long as she can remember.
“He puts a lot of effort into every piece he does. He researches the places he is going to draw beforehand and also includes details that are important to the family he is giving the piece to,” she said. “He really enjoys what he does, and it brings him a lot of joy. It’s a great outlet for him.”
For Hegedus, his art is mostly just a hobby to amuse and please friends. He has a website – hegedusfolkart.com – to show it off and some of his works are for sale. He also sometimes turns them into puzzles and other items that he sells. But turning a profit and going pro is not his primary goal.
“I really do it for fun,” Hegedus said. “I rarely go a day without drawing or sketching something.”