Leopold “Leo” Segedin had to paint.
As his vision failed in his 90s, Mr. Segedin told home health aides what colors to mix on his palate before putting brush to canvas to create the gritty cityscapes and self-portraits he’d been making nearly his entire life.
“He’d tell you he didn’t love painting,” his son Paul Segedin said. “It was just something he had to do. It was important to him. Why? I don’t know if he could tell you that.”
As his age ascended, his home studio descended — from the attic of his Evanston home to the second floor to the first floor.
When he retired in 1987 after 32 years of teaching art at Northeastern Illinois University, he was compelled to paint every day.
He painted scenes inspired by his childhood on the West Side in a neighborhood of Irish, Italian and Jewish families. There were scenes of vacant lots and L stations.
“There’s always a bit of menace in his paintings, even if they were of children playing. They weren’t always happy. He was bullied some as a kid. There was plenty of fighting, if you stepped into the wrong block it could be risky,” his son said.
It wasn’t all blue. His 2010 painting “Old Men Dancing” features images of Mr. Segedin grooving across a train platform.
“I once asked Leo, ‘What do you dream about?’ and he said, ‘I dream about painting,’ ” recalled Robert Alter, a friend and River North resident who owns several works by Mr. Segedin.
Mr. Segedin died Tuesday from natural causes. He was 97.
“I’ve always felt that my own paintings should speak for themselves,” Mr. Segedin wrote on his website. “Words can point to what you should look at and create a context for what you see, but I don’t think that anyone can really communicate in words what works of art communicate any more than they can create in words the taste of a good wine.”
Mr. Segedin was born March 22, 1927, in Chicago to Boris Segedin, a salesman, and Bessie Segedin, a homemaker.
He grew up near Polk Avenue and Springfield Street in Homan Square.
His mother encouraged him to paint and entered him in classes and exhibits as a teenager.
He attended Gregory Elementary School and Crane High School and studied art at the University of Illinois before he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War.
He was stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, where he taught mechanical drawing.
“I like to say that his art saved his life,” Paul Segedin said.
While in the service he began painting a portrait of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his free time. His bosses mistakenly thought it was an official duty. Mr. Segedin did not correct them and was able to skip calisthenics because of it, he liked to joke. His commanding officer had the finished product shipped to the White House.
“We don’t know what happened to it after that,” his son said.
His late wife, Jan, talked him into retiring from teaching at 60 so he could be the artist he wanted to be.
“Placing himself in his remembered past is a hallmark of Leo’s work, whether depicting a confrontation with bullies or playing childhood games, a favorite subject,” his neighbor, Alan Teller, wrote in a piece published in 2022 in the Jewish media outlet Forward.
“I’m a cheap model,” Mr. Segedin liked to joke.
His paintings were displayed in a number of galleries, museums and civic spaces. The most one fetched was $13,000. “He loved selling his work but it wasn’t really important to him,” Paul Segedin said.
Mr. Segedin and his wife were part of a group of friends who hosted and performed theatrical productions in their living rooms. Mr. Segedin — script in hand, and one rehearsal under his belt — tackled productions like “Amadeus” and “Red.”
“Despite the amateurishness, many of the performances were surprisingly effective and powerful,” his son Ben Segedin said.
He also organized monthly luncheons at the Firehouse Grill in Evanston where a group of retired colleagues and friends delivered lectures. Mr. Segedin spoke on subjects ranging from martinis (he loved them) to consciousness.
A book of his art, “Leopold Segedin: A Habit of Art,” was published in 2018.
His work is currently on display at the National Veterans Art Museum in Portage Park.
In addition to his sons, Mr. Segedin is survived by one granddaughter.
A celebration of life is being planned.