Most artists need to work a day job to make ends meet. Max Wolff of Hyannis works in a restaurant and art gallery in Sandwich called The Seal. He worked there in the kitchen for about two years before the owners found out about his artistic talent.
“My dream is to have my art on the tallest building painted outside,” Wolff said, speaking through translator Renato Melo. He is from Brazil originally and speaks Portuguese.
“I love colors,” he said. “I love to express colors of life.”
Cape Cod doesn't have the kind of tall buildings Wolff dreams of. So right now, his paintings, full of bright color, are hanging in The Seal.
Wendy Sweet Wilson is half of the husband and wife duo behind the restaurant. She's responsible for The Seal’s gallery display of local contemporary art pieces.
“I cannot paint, I cannot do any sort of art, but I've always had a really good eye,” she said. “One day someone said, ‘You know, Max is a painter.’ I said, ‘What?’ And then he came over with his van.”
Inside the van was Wolff’s art.
“My jaw just dropped — my God, he's so talented,” Sweet Wilson said. “Next thing you know, three days later, he was hanging in the gallery.”
Wolff said he’s been honing his painting skills since he was five years old.
“I used to do a lot of drawing, especially at school,” he said. “When they had tests I would always draw instead of doing the test. The teacher always loved my drawings, but wanted me to do the test.”
Wolff's work is striking, in part just for its size. The paintings are big.
Wolff has three paintings hanging in the seal. When you walk in the door to The Seal, the bar is on the left and the gallery wall is on the right. But on the back wall, hanging all on its own, is Wolff’s painting of a man playing a guitar. It’s mostly primary colors, reds, blues and yellows with black accents and shadows. The large brush strokes create a sense of movement in the painting.
“The guitar is melting into the background, as is his hat and his hands and his whole entire body,” Sweet Wilson said, looking up at the painting. “It's like the music is encompassing the entire canvas.”
The guitar player painting is a little different than his other two works in The Seal. One is of a girl's face and the other is of a lion. Both have a blocky, graphic style. But what all of Wolff’s paintings have in common is bright, bold color.
“[In] these pictures, it's more of a collaboration of colors,” Wolff said. “I do a drawing, and then there is a separation of the drawing, and then I start assembling all colors.”
For Wolff, the artistic process is very instinctual. He does a drawing freehand and then starts filling everything in with paint. He'll usually finish the whole thing in one go—often in just a few hours.
“I start drawing with a pencil and it just comes free to mind,” Wolff explained. “It becomes easier to me when I'm drawing, and then I just put the brush and the paint to it.”
Wolff believes his artistic abilities are a gift from God. As for his inspirations, he said, it almost always comes from within.
“I believe that if you have negativity in your heart, you will paint something negative," Wolff said. “I always try to be very conscious and positive in my heart and in my mind for me to be able to paint bright and wonderful things for people to see and to appreciate.”
Toward the end of the interview, Wolff brought more of his paintings out of his van and into the restaurant.
Each painting is big — at least two by three feet. There are birds, a leopard, a ballerina, an eagle, a horse, a saxophone player, all with Wolff's signature bright colors and big textured brushstrokes.
“In a way, I'm proud of myself, and I am extremely happy,” Wolff said. “It's almost like fulfilling the dream. It's very humbling when people come to me and [tell me] how much they appreciate the art that I'm able to do.”