Arts Benicia

ON SATURDAY, OCT. 27, AT 4:40 P.M., William (“Bill”) Lesueur Harsh III, beloved artist, teacher, and husband of Marilyn Bardet, died peacefully at home in Benicia, at age 59.

Throughout his year-long battle against metastatic lung cancer, Bill was surrounded by good friends and family, everyone offering love and care throughout his last weeks and final days. Learning that the treatments had failed to arrest the disease, Bill elected in August to forego further treatment and signed on for palliative care with Kaiser Vallejoʼs hospice program, for whose caring service Marilyn, family and friends are supremely grateful.

Facing death squarely, Bill did not fear, but lamented that he would not be able to paint again. Yet itʼs clear to those who have known him that the beautiful, energetic and vital works that he left behind are his legacy — his second, spiritual body, to be known for many years to come. Those who knew him best as painter, printmaker and teacher, through his service to Arts Benicia and its education program and within the Benicia Arsenal artistsʼ community, gave Bill great comfort and solace in his final weeks and days. He was fond of saying that Benicia is a wonderful place to live if you have an interior life — his salute to the city and community for supporting the arts and keeping the historic Benicia Arsenal a place where artists could work and live.

Bill was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, of American parents, Lorene and William L. Harsh II of Berkeley, and was raised in Europe, in Paris and Brussels, until his 14th year, when his family moved back to the U.S., to Connecticut — for Bill, a train ride away from New York’s art museums. It was through his early exposure to the great western European tradition in painting that Billʼs own dream of painting arose. Drawing constantly since earliest childhood, Bill first pursued training in fine art as a high school student at Interlochen Arts Academy, in Traverse City, Mich. He continued his studies at Boston Art Institute, and earned a B.F.A. and M.F.A. at Boston Universityʼs School of Fine Arts, where he studied under painters Joseph Ablow, Reed Kay, James Weeks (of the Bay Area figurative school) and Philip Guston. At the School of Fine Arts, he met Marilyn while she was studying painting and earning her B.F.A. and M.F.A., and teaching for three years at B.U.

Bill began his long teaching career with a one-year post at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., followed by several years as associate professor at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. With Marilyn, Bill moved to California in 1986 and took an instructorʼs position, teaching perspective drawing for seven years at the San Francisco Academy of Art University. They had located studio space in Beniciaʼs Arsenal district, and in that same year decided to make Benicia their home, marrying in 1987. The two were very well suited, sharing studios together for 10 years and enjoying spirited conversations, especially about art, history, civic life and politics.

Bill taught classes in perspective, painting and printmaking at various places, including Chabot College in Antioch. In the last decade, he established a studio arts classroom and education program for Arts Benicia, teaching printmaking every Saturday to a loyal group of adult students. He also served on Arts Beniciaʼs board of directors for eight years, and taught printmaking through Walnut Creekʼs civic arts program.

Bill has exhibited his work in Benicia and has been included in a group show at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. His work has been collected in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Since 2010, Billʼs work has been enthusiastically represented by Lonnie Lee of Vessel Gallery in Oakland, where a retrospective titled “Inside Out: A William Harsh Retrospective” is currently on view through the month of November, with paintings from three decades of his dedicated practice.

A special reception for friends and family will be held at Vessel Gallery on Nov. 10 from 2-6 p.m. to celebrate Billʼs life and work. At 3:30 p.m., brief words will be shared as part of an informal tour around the gallery, with the opportunity for guests to lend stories and memories of Bill. A book about his paintings, created and published by Dewitt Cheng, titled “William Harsh,” will be available for purchase at the gallery.

Bill was predeceased by his father, William L. Harsh II, and his mother, Lorene Smith Harsh, of Berkeley; and by his half-brother David Joly, of Ashland, Ore. He is survived by his sister Toni Harsh and brother-in-law Wayne Robinson of Eagle River, Alaska; his half-sister Mary Joly, of Ashland (formerly of Benicia); his nephew Justin Dos of Oregon (formerly of Benicia); and his niece Kate Joly of Austin, Texas. Bill was dearly loved by Marilyn and will be sorely missed by her whole family: parents-in-law Joan and Bill Bardet of Pleasant Hill; brother-in-law Gordon Bardet and his wife Susan and their sons, Jeremy and Adrian Bardet; and dear cousins of the Martin, Edwards and deBuren families, all of the Bay Area region.

Marilyn is deeply grateful for the outpouring of affection, care, support and love from all who knew Bill and shared precious days with him during these last months, and who have stood by her, lending her courage in this difficult last journey by his side.

In a collaborative effort between the Vessel Gallery in Oakland and Gallery 621 in Benicia, a fund has been established to facilitate the acquisition of a select few of Billʼs works by local and regional museums, where his paintings can be shown and preserved in perpetuity. Marilyn and family request that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the “William Harsh Museum Gifting Fund,” c/o Gallery 621, 621 First St., Benicia, CA 94510; or c/o the Vessel Gallery, 471 25th St., Oakland, CA 94612.

For more information about the fund, phone Lonnie Lee, founder /curator of Vessel Gallery, at 510-893-8800. Donations, earmarked “in honor of Bill Harsh,” would also be very appreciated for Arts Beniciaʼs Education Program, c/o www.artsbenicia.com.

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