Richmond man uses lifelong talent of painting to help St. Jude
Oct. 3—Just far enough outside Richmond to escape the hustle and bustle, lies a house and in that house lives a man who has many a story to tell.
On his wall in the kitchen hangs a painting, a painting of which he did based on a foldout from a weekend magazine called the Saturday Evening Post.
The painting is titled 'Before The Storm' and eighty-seven year old Mitch Tate is the man who painted this portrait. He is giving some of the proceeds to St. Jude's Hospital in Tennessee.
Tate's time as an artist started all the way back he was just a teenager.
"I started in high school, I took an art course through the mail," he said. After taking the course, he started to experiment with paint and types of paint, like oil which is what he uses for paintings now.
One painting of his hung in Madison Central while he was a student there, Tate said.
After graduating Madison Central, he joined the Air Force.
Another one of the portraits that Tate painted was painted during his time in U.S Air Force.
He painted a portrait of the volcano and high point of the island nation of Japan, Mount Fuji. He left the painting to one of his friends in the Air Force.
"I said, 'take care of my picture,' and I left the picture, forty years later, I hunted him down and by surprise, he came to see me and brought that picture," Tate recalled.
That photo is on the wall next to the painting of the horses, that painting has a story of its own too.
"He said he moved eight times and took it every time and took care of it," Tate said.
Which brings us back to the painting being sold to help St. Jude. Tate said that he started the original painting with the reference sketch of the horses back in the 1980s.
"I loved horses," he said. He saw what he described as huge double-fold in the magazine and painted that.
"The most recent photo I did, I did strictly from memory. I had nothing to go by and I did it from what I had done many, many years ago," Tate said.
The second painting was started in the 1980s with the reference sketch, that's when life picked up and Tate shelved his paint for around two decades.
"[In] 2001, I decided I ought to finish. My thoughts were 'I ought to finish something before I leave this world,' I said I'm going to finish that picture," he said.
After many years, and putting a billiards ball through the canvas and patching it up, Tate completed the painting in 2021.
Along with the paintings of Mount Fuji and the horses, he's painted several miniature portraits of the late Elvis Presley after Presley's passing to give to people he sold cars to.
"They were tickled to death to get [the portrait]," Tate said.
As mentioned earlier, Tate is giving some of the proceeds out to St. Jude Hospital in Tennessee.
"I watched the kids on TV from St. Jude's Hospital, that brings tears to my eyes when I watch that commercial, and seeing them little kids there," he said.
Tate found out a while later that at the print where he had the smaller versions of his horse painting printed that no ones pays a dime to St. Jude Hospital.
While at the print shop, Tate found out a family had a daughter who was born with part of her skull being soft and that part of the infant's skull laying on her brain. Tate said that was preventing the brain from growing, so the family took her to St. Jude to get it treated.
The girl has since grown to be a completely normal and healthy teenager and it did not cost the family anything.
Armed with that knowledge, he knew that St. Jude was the place he wanted to donate the money.
He's also got flyers up at the Old Richmond Mall on the and is working with one of the vendors in there to sell these portrait prints, so they can also donate some proceeds to St. Jude's.
There are 14.5-inch by 24 inch and 24 inches by 31 inches available for purchase for $20 and $40, respectively. The smaller prints are available just after walking into the main entrance to the Old Richmond Mall.
