This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Obituary, "Arthur O. Biehl, artist, dies at 77" by Ellen Robertson. Times-Dispatch , April 7, 2004.
"When artist Arthur Oliver Biehl was growing up in Norfolk, he liked to try to copy the illustrations in his father's collection of old books about nature - right in the books.
As he grew up, he graduated to more sophisticated media. During a stint with the Navy Signal Corps in the Far East during World War II, he did watercolor paintings of Navy personnel and of his destroyer escort's ports of call. And he went on to become an internationally acclaimed artist.
Mr. Biehl, who spent 21 years as a professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University department of communications arts and design, died Saturday at his home in Venice, Fla., after a five-year bout with cancer. He was 77.
He came to Richmond after the war and earned a bachelor's degree at Richmond Professional Institute, now VCU, where he then taught for 21 years until 1974. He served as interim chairman of the department in the early 1970s. He was also a commercial designer and a painter.
"Art was a mentor to me during those first years of my teaching career, discussing his teaching philosophy and methodology and sharing his class projects," said Chuck Scalin, former assistant chairman and professor in the department. "After he retired in 1974 and left Richmond and until last Christmas," said Scalin, "my wife and I had always received yearly holiday cards from him accompanied by wonderful reproductions of his new paintings. "Art was not only a masterful designer but was also an accomplished painter whose skillfully executed paintings were carried by galleries in New York, Florida and in Europe."
In Richmond, his work appeared principally at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and shows at the University of Richmond. In 1965, he won a national award for his seagull art that became the logo for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. After leaving VCU, he devoted his life to painting. Until 1985, he lived in Mallorca, Spain, "in a house on the side of a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean. That was 11 years of heaven," said his companion of 44 years, Richard Porter. During this period, Mr. Biehl was known for "very minutely detailed landscapes," Porter said. He returned to the United States in 1985, settling in Venice, Fla., and continued to paint. His style was one of contemporary photo-realism. "He was best-known for his waves and water, bicycles and a lot of open windows where you can look in. He very seldom painted people. He liked his paintings to feel like a person had just passed through," Porter said.
Mr. Biehl's paintings were found in art collections, including those of Malcolm S. Forbes, Sidney and Frances Lewis, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Maurice Tempelsman of New York and the Ministry of Tourism of the Canary Islands.
His work had been reviewed in publications such as the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times Book Review and Time magazine.
A lover of travel, he kept a wall map dotted with pushpins marking his global excursions from Europe to Africa, where he took photos that provided inspiration for more paintings when he returned home, Porter said.
Survivors include a sister, Katherine Fisher of Marblehead, Mass.
No funeral is planned. A dinner gathering of friends will be held later in Venice, Fla.
Staff writer Jenifer V. Buckman contributed to this obituary.
Thanks go to John Wine [John Wine Design] for this obit information. "
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Exhibited:
Virginia Museum biennial exhibitions, 1962, 1963 (Purchase Award), 1964, 1965
“Virginia Artists Rotating Exhibition” Paintings by Arthur O. Biehl and Elliott Twery; sculpture by Richard Cossitt. 5 Oct.-3 Dec. 1961
“Virginia Artist: Arthur Biehl”In Robinson House, works by this Norfolk artist. 10 Nov. – 3 Dec. 1965
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