ALVA DOUGLAS "Al" FINCHER

Al Fincher has been referred to as "a historian with a brush".  The Charlotte artist, in painting landmarks in the (Mecklenburg Co., NC) area, learned a kind of visual detail that most students of history never acquire.  He always said, "NC has anything you want to paint."

Al Fincher was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (where he also taught) and the Cape School of Art in Provincetown, Mass. on scholarship. He also taught at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.

In his travels, he has gone to Canada, Hawaii, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Europe. On his last trip to Europe, he visited nine different Art Museums.

These travels have only reconfirmed his belief that his home state of North Carolina is the most beautiful. Many years ago, he began painting Historical Sites in the State which later became his personal project for the Bicentennial year. He learned much little known history of North Carolina. There was an interesting "story" about each and every painting.

Fincher was commissioned to paint two scenes of the new Arequipa Park by the Public Library, one for the mayor of Arequipa, hangs in Peru; the other, for the ambassador from Peru, hangs in the Peruvian Embassy in Washington. 

(The above was taken from several articles by the Charlotte Observer about Al Fincher which was written many years ago.)

The Historical Foundation of the Presbyterian Church purchased 8 paintings from Al Fincher in 1955 which were of the oldest Presbyterian Churches in the Charlotte area. They are on permanent display at the Presbyterian Historical Society building at the corner of Assembly Drive and Georgia Terrace in Montreat, NC. They are open Mon.-Fri 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM year round and on Saturdays 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM June - August and Oct. only.

Al Fincher also illustrated the Comptons Encyclopedia including the entire flag and seal section.  (Comptons is now out of print).  His daughter, Dale, remembered him fussing and fuming once while working on the Presidential Seal. When he had finished the Presidential Seal and was counting the stars, he realized he was one short and had to start all over again.

Former student of Al Fincher:

Meet Harris Holt - Artist

 . . .


". . . I'm Harris Holt the III. . .  I enjoyed drawing as I grew up. When I was in high school there was a local art show where I met Al Fincher who was a water color artist. He taught at the Mint Museum in Charlotte. My mother signed me up for lessons from him. I was the youngest student at 17 he'd ever taken on. So I began in water colors. He only charged me for the first set of lessons because my enthusiasm was so strong to learn, and I did apply myself diligently, that he wanted to see what I could accomplish. He (Al) painted NC subject matter. One of the big projects he did was for the Bicentennial of NC. He literally went to every county in NC in the mid 60's and photographed subject matter there; he did two paintings for every county. This was a stupendous bit of work. It is a pity all of those paintings weren't compiled and offered for sale in book form. He taught by demonstration; if I wanted to learn how to paint a sky, he'd paint a sky - a tree or so on. I watched him closely; his patience was wonderful, and by doing so I learned the real basics of transparent water colors."  (source:  copied from the North Carolina Gazette Newspaper web site -- http://www.gazettenewspapers.net/ncgazette/harris_holt.html)