Brushing The Day Away On Allegheny

For only a day, Allegheny Avenue felt a little like home for Ted Tihansky.

The breeze blew through the lanky, soft-spoken painter's silver hair. It blew through his canvas. And it blew it over, over and over again. And yet there was nowhere else he would rather be. After all, he's used to dealing with the wind.

"Wind is your enemy, I tell you," he said.

The 57-year-old moved to Glen Arm in northern Baltimore County just three weeks ago from Monhegan, a small island in Maine, and for the last three weeks, he's been at the Towson Farmers Market, painting the weekly Allegheny Avenue tradition. And Thursday's gentle wind was a reminder of where he came from.

"This is the first day that it's been windy, so I turned [the canvas] sideways like a sailboat," he said. "Sometimes it falls down and hits me in the head, so I make sure it doesn't fall down and get hurt."

Tihansky, who studied with the Art Students League of New York and the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Connecticut, moved to Maryland to be closer to friends. He has been stationed just outside Zia's Cafe on Allegheny Avenue during the farmers markets for three weeks, enjoying the lovely weather, grabbing lunch and working on his painting. It shows shoppers and farmers engaged in conversation and enjoying the bright, friendly atmosphere.

But just three weeks ago, Tihansky was painting a very different, much quieter environment on his quiet Maine island.

"It was really good to be surrounded by nature," he said. "I also had a teacher up there that was a very very very good landscape painter that I learned a lot from."

Moving from an island with a double-digit population to one of the most populous counties in Maryland isn't a shock to Tihansky's system. In fact, he loves the bustling atmosphere at the Farmers Market.

"There's a lot going on. I like to paint outside when things are around, when people are around," he said.

Tihansky has been working on other paintings in Towson since moving to the area, including one of the Recher Theater and paintings of the Feet on the Street concerts. Nancy Hafford, chair of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, has seen him work and heard his paintings go for anywhere from $500 to $4,000.

"I think he's an excellent painter," she said. "It sort of gives us a Venice Beach flair for our Friday night concerts."

Hafford said she's "thrilled" to have Tihansky painting on Allegheny and even asked if the farmers market piece was up for sale. It wasn't, but that doesn't stop her from dreaming.

"For the chamber of commerce, $4,000 is definitely out of my price range, but I would love to have one of his pieces from the Feet on the Street concerts," she said. "I have a wall at the Chamber of Commerce already picked out for it."