At age 50, Jerald Peterson retired from the Central Intelligence Agency to begin his second career – as an artist.

During his travels with wife and best friend Molly, he happened upon what he considered to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. And retirement brought him back to that place: Tahlequah.

With paintbrush in hand and encouragement from Molly, he began creating marvelous water color and oil paintings that eventually would sell for $5,000 and up.

On display at Peterson’s Art Gallery, on Mud Valley Road, energetic and romantic paintings adorn every wall. They’re visual reminders of the colorful people the Petersons met or know, and the places they love the most.

The Oklahoma State University graduates originally followed Jerald’s dream to join the CIA, “for patriotic reasons.” His career took them to many corners of the world, including Morocco, Paris, the Dominican Republic and Washington, D.C. Many of these places would become subject matter for his paintings.

Both Petersons are happy they’ve chosen Tahlequah as home. It’s centrally located to all the fine art shows and festivals, especially those in Texas.

Texans especially like his paintings, Molly said.

“They really match the interiors in the Dallas area,” she said. “Jerry’s evolved into painting arches, Old World European themes and interiors of 16 century monasteries in Mexico.”

The couple now spends at least one month a year in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, after living there four years. Molly describes their home away from home as “a trendy, very beautiful retirement community for wealthy Americans and Europeans.”

Jerald also shares his talents in another way: He teaches oil painting workshops to students who spend the week with the couple.

“We learn from one another,” he said of his students.

Life drawing classes are offered at the Peterson Art Gallery every other Thursday with a live model, one of several college students.

“We do quick sketches for one minute, a couple of five-minute sketches and one for 20 minutes,” Jerald said.

The fee – usually $5, depending on how many artists attend – goes to pay the model.

“Jerry’s painted me nude, but I made him stop because the brush tickled,” Molly said, joking.

They go to fine art festivals to sell his work.

“People who like to make the connection between art and the artist come to fine art festivals,” Molly said.

Their first show was at Fin ‘n’ Feather, near Gore.

“We didn’t know the difference then between a craft fair and a juried art show,” Molly said.

Sunshine Artist Magazine and Zapplication.org are sources the couple uses to keep abreast of upcoming festivals.

Jerald is self-taught, and some might consider his first forays into the art world rather inauspicious. He started drawing on bathroom walls as a kid.

“If you can draw, you can paint,” he said. “An artist has to ask, is he painting to sell or to express himself?”

The first piece he sold was in Washington, D.C., of an exotic Moroccan woman wearing beads, and a wrap on her head.

“It paid the rent, and we knew he was marketable,” Molly recalled.

His paintings first sold for $90, and now, a decade later, he can pay more than rent after selling just one painting.

But the current economy has many artists struggling.

“Luxury shame is now keeping very wealthy buyers from buying,” Molly said. “They can justify a car, but not non-utilitarian art. All artists are having a tough time.”

Jerry’s style is representational, she said.

“He’s most known for his arches. Sometimes he gets kind of tired of painting arches, but that’s what sells,” Molly said. “Selling keeps him inspired. If he doesn’t sell, he goes into a blue funk.”

Some people think water color will fade, and it will – unless the artist uses a good, non-fading pigment, he said. That’s what he does.

Giclee, the process of painting water color on canvas, is another style he employs.

He does a lot of work in oils, because people like it.

“They have the idea water colors are drawings,” he said. “Oil is more rich-looking and more serious. And you don’t have to have glass over it.”

Molly added, “Oil is traditionally the king of mediums.”

People tell Jerald his paintings make them feel like they’re “going somewhere,” she said.

“They like to sit and have their morning coffee in front of one of his paintings because they enjoy traveling there into the painting,” she said. “They see something in Jerry’s art that touches their souls.”

Then, grinning at her husband, she added, “Jerry’s thinking of all those generations down the road that will see his paintings on Antique Road Show.”

The Petersons agree there are many good artists in Tahlequah.

“Most of the artists we’ve met here have taken classes at NSU,” he said. “The NSU art department is excellent.”

Art matters very much, Jerald said, “because it’s signs and symbols. A way of expressing ideas and concepts about life. It brings back memories.”

And it also matters, he said, “because it pays the bills.”

“There weren’t that many people painting back when the Old Masters were,” he said. “Now we’ve expanded to where everybody’s painting outlandish and abstract to get attention.”

Rembrandt is his personal idol.

“It’s not photorealism, but it’s ‘painterly,’” he said. “Super-realism is a monologue, everything there you see. Painterly is a dialogue between you and the painter, with lines that fade out, and your eye fills in the blank.”

David Leffel is his favorite current painter, because he paints like Rembrandt with a lot of dark and light.

When asked if she also paints, Molly replies, “No. He paints them and I make him.”

It’s her job, in other words, to keep Jerald painting.

“If the marriage hadn’t been made in heaven, it wouldn’t have lasted 46 years,” she said with a wink.

Jerald nodded and smiled at his wife, his eyes twinkling.

Check it out

Anyone who is interested in Jerald Peteron’s art class, or the workshops in San Miguel de Allende, may contact the Petersons at (918) 453-0670.