Ted Hebbler is a self-taught artist who has been painting for almost ten years now. From the very early age as a kid in the early fifties, he loved to paint and draw. A native of New Orleans, Ted Hebbler was inspired to pick up the brush and paint by Charlie Ward, a very famous and eccentric jazz artist. It was in the late nineteins that Hebbler’s hidden desire to start painting sparked, as the he hung around with Ward.
It was then that the artist decided to dive into the sea of art. As the friendship between Hebbler and Ward grew stronger, the young artist started observing Ward paint in the Jackson Square during weekends. Ward was the one who gave Hebbler the informal lessons across a pool table over a cold beer at the legendary Stage door. It was only then that Hebbler became a closet painter. However, he was too shy to show his art to anyone and withdrew himself into solitude. The only soul that saw his initial paintings was his pet cat.
It was after almost twenty pieces that the artist took his paintings to work at a Nuclear Medicine Lab. To his blissful surprise, he sold fifteen paintings by the end of the day. Eventually, his professional nuclear work took him to the Virginia Islands, in United States. Then he spent seven years on three different islands. It was the beautiful colors of the Caribbean that escalated the passion of the painter to paint all the mountains, oceans and tropical plants prolifically the entire time of his stay.
While running his nuclear laboratories, he was fortunate enough to sell over three hundred paintings to various people including doctors, nurses, patients and tourists. He also met many native West Indians who took him in as family and they saw and appreciated all of his art works in various bars, restaurants and hospitals.
As luck would have it, it was only recently that the artist returned back to his hometown due to the Katrina Hurricane. It was because of the hurricane that Ted Hebbler had to give up his magical life in the blissful paradise of the islands and come back to New Orleans.
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