Pete Jubitz and family members presented the Gilbert Clarke vista of Mount Hood from Inspiration Point painting, to Crag Rats on Dec. 12 at the group’s monthly meeting.
Pete Jubitz and family members presented the Gilbert Clarke vista of Mount Hood from Inspiration Point painting, to Crag Rats on Dec. 12 at the group’s monthly meeting.
Kirby Neumann-Rea
Mount Hood from Inspiration Point, by Gilbert Clarke, in its new place at Crag Rats Hut. For years it hung in the old Franz Hardware store downtown.
A blazing fire behind him in the massive Crag Rat Hut fireplace, Pete Jubitz delivered a unique gift to the Hood River Crag Rats search and rescue organization last month.
The large painting of Mount Hood from Inspiration Point by the late Gilbert T. Clarke now hangs in the entry way of the Crag Rat Hut, which is located on a hillside in Pine Grove. The painting reflects the panoramic view of the mountain out the Crag Rat Hut window, and joins a long line of historic art and memorabilia in the halls and meeting room of the facility. Clarke, who lived in Hood River and Moro until his death in 2010, painted houses and murals in addition to his studio art work of landscapes and local people.
“It is with great pleasure that the Jubitz family, owners of the Franz Hardware in Hood River from 1937 to 2004, donate this Mt. Hood painting, by Gilbert T. Clarke, to the Hood River Crag Rats,” said Jubitz. The painting hung in the store for years before its closing, and the work has its own unique story.
“I have a history with you you don’t even know about,” Jubitz told the Crag Rats, recalling admiring the men in black-checked shirts helping decorate downtown at Christmas, and helping his family on Christmas tree outings.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to pass it on,” he said.
“Gilbert Clarke was a native son of Hood River,” Jubitz said. “He spent a lifetime of residential and commercial painting in the Columbia Gorge area. He also had a great love creating ‘western cowboy’ and ‘Mount Hood scenes’ to express his creative skills.
“The importance to us to give this picture to Crag Rats is huge. It’s very important,” Jubitz said. He joked that, in part, “What do you do with a 4-by-6-foot painting?”
Jubitz was joined by wife Bonnie, sister Marsha, and daughters Tia and Machel, along with Gilbert’s grandson, Nathan Clarke of Hood River.
“We all feel we’re connected to give this painting to Crag Rats,” Jubitz said.
“This unique painting of Mount Hood should be shared with the people of Hood River County,” Jubitz said. “For this reason, we have chosen to donate this painting to the Hood River Crag Rats — the foremost guardians of Mount Hood.”
“It feels outstanding. This is where this painting was meant to be,” said Clarke, who continues the family’s house-painting business as Nate Clarke Painting. He said the painting resembles a painting he also owns, a wedding gift from Gilbert.
From the fire, a new painting
In 2016, Jubitz had loaned the Crag Rats’ painting to Steffen Lunding, owner of the 301 Oak building, It’s now in its final display spot. This is how Jubitz tells its story:
“My earliest remembrance of Franz Hardware has always included a large painting of Mount Hood hanging on the North wall of the store, above the safe, in the main office.
“The artist of that first painting was always in question. The rumors indicated that the painter was an itinerant orchard worker, but I never knew the true source for that information.
“Following the July 19, 1984, fire, on the second floor and attic of the Franz building, we experienced a massive cleanup on the main floor of the hardware store. The focal point of the fire was directly above the main floor office.
“The painting that hung on the office wall had significant water damage issues. The painting contractor who repainted the interior of the hardware store was G.G. Clarke & Son. One day, Gilbert Clarke asked if he could take the Mount Hood painting to his home to repair it to original status. We loaded the painting into his truck and he took it home to do the needed touch-ups.
“I didn’t hear from him for a long time, not a word, and about eight months after taking the old painting, I observed Gilbert walking into the hardware store and coming directly toward me. He asked if I could help him carry something from his truck back into the office. When he uncovered the painting, it was a brand new and beautiful rendition of Mount Hood.
“He confessed that he had tried to salvage ‘the old painting,’ but it was too water stained, and he was unable to make it look right. So, he said, ‘I got so frustrated I kicked a hole in the old canvas painting and burned it on my trash pile.’
“He then began a totally new painting, utilizing his professional skills to create a replacement, to decorate the north wall of Franz Hardware. That new painting hung in its proper place from 1985 to 2004, when Franz Hardware was permanently closed.”
Crag Rats Bill Pattison and Todd Wells will add two plaques to the hearth at Crag Hut that tell the Clarke painting story for posterity.
Jubitz told the Crag Rats, “My remembrance of Crag Rats goes back longer than most of you have been alive. When I was about 7, the merchants, on Sunday after Thanksgiving, all came to Hood River and decorated the city up, and I remember there were several men who had these beautiful shirts. I asked my mom, ‘Who are those guys who have the black and white checked shirts?’ It wasn’t too many years after that we had a family Christmas tree hunt, and Crag Rags were along. My ‘affair’ with the Crag Rats goes way back to being a little kid in about 1948 and ‘49.
“And now, my son-in-law, Devon (Wells), is a Crag Rat and his wife, Tia, rents it out. And I like to think there is a reasonable likelihood that someday I will have a blood relative who’s a Crag Rat and they can say, ‘My grandpa had something to do with that painting 30 or 40 years ago.’”
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