Early Life, Family and Training

Harold Feist was born in 1945 in San Angelo, Texas. His childhood was marked by frequent moves, a result of his father’s career as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. These transitions shaped his early years as a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. He eventually moved toward formal studies in the American Midwest, earning a B.F.A. (Honours) from the University of Illinois (Champaign) in 1967.

His academic path continued toward more specialized training in the late 1960s. In 1969, he completed an M.F.A. as a Hoffberger Fellow at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore. This period of study provided the foundation for a career that would span over five decades of painting.

In his personal life, Harold Feist was a father to four children. Among them was the singer/songwriter Leslie Feist, who carries his surname for her own professional work. His life was characterized by a quiet wit and a habit of creating imaginative bedtime stories for his children, often ending them with the phrase, "and the next day, it rained."

Technique and Style of Abstract Painting

Feist worked primarily with large-scale Colour Field compositions, utilizing acrylic and latex to build his surfaces. He had a specific way of handling the medium, using matting agents and gels to alter the way light hit the canvas. This helped him mitigate the plastic sheen often found in thick acrylic, allowing him to add a tactile, physical texture to the work. He would layer miasmas of color, alternating between opaque layers and those that appeared frosted or translucent.

His palette relied on high-key, intense pigments. He often reached for the sharpest tones available, such as naphthol pinks, dioxazine purples, and toxic quinacridone violets. These colors were not merely applied; they were often integrated with bits of floating detritus that had been soaked in the same high-key hues. These small, colored fragments would settle into the "soup" of the background, appearing almost as if they were suspended within the layers of paint.

• Trucker Sadness, about 1980

Teaching Career and Professional Life

His path in the art world was shaped by the guidance of a painter and a critic who championed his direction. This early mentorship helped ground his practice as he moved into academia. From 1968 to 1974, he held a position at the Alberta College of Art. His teaching continued through various institutions, including the University of Regina, Mount Allison University, and the University of Guelph. He also spent time as a professor at the University of Alberta during the 1970s.

By 1978, he made the choice to step away from teaching to focus entirely on his own painting. This period saw his work move beyond local circles, finding its way into galleries and exhibitions in Berlin, Lisbon, London, and Paris. His canvases traveled through many collections, appearing in museums across Canada and the United States, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Later Years and Death

In his final years, Feist lived in Toronto, Ontario. He remained an active presence in the art community, continuing to work well into the twenty-first century. He was known by those close to him for a sense of understated wit and a ready joke. He had a habit of telling his children stories where the main character would land in their own backyard at the end of an adventure, always closing with the phrase, "and the next day, it rained."

He passed away suddenly at home on Friday, May 7, 2021, at the age of 76. His death occurred without pain or distress. He left behind four children: Benjamin, Leslie, Emily, and Jackson.