Photo by Linda Comins Wheeling artist Greg Siegwart shows his oil painting, “Stroke of Genius,” inspired by the view from his room at Wheeling Hospital. After an Aug. 22 stroke, he resumed painting Wheeling scenes for each week of 2016. All 52 pieces are featured in a new exhibition, “Wheeling, As I See It,” at the Wheeling Artisan Center.

After artist Greg Siegwart set out to paint Wheeling scenes at a rate of one each week for a year, not even a stroke could deter his goal of completing 52 paintings in 2016.

In fact, one landscape, titled “Stroke of Genius,” was inspired by the view from his room at Wheeling Hospital.

All 52 paintings — depicting buildings and landscapes in the 26003 ZIP code and following the seasons — are on display in the Loft Gallery at the Wheeling Artisan Center now through April 27. The exhibition, “Wheeling, As I See It,” opened Thursday.

Chris Villamagna, gallery curator, said, “This is a wonderful exhibit. Anyone who lives, loves or has visited Wheeling should see this exhibit. Greg does a great job capturing the landscapes of Wheeling and brings to attention what most take for granted on a daily basis.”

Even the artist is somewhat amazed by the enormity of seeing all of the oil paintings lining the walls of the third-floor gallery. “I didn’t realize how big this project was until I walked in,” he said, gazing at the length and breadth of the display.

The works are arranged chronologically, beginning at the entrance to the gallery, snaking around three sides of the large room and extending into the adjoining room.

“Not only is it a map of Wheeling, but also it’s a chronology of 2016,” Siegwart explained. “The paintings were done one a week. The information for the painting was gotten that week, so they were completed chronologically.”

As he painted and heard comments about his work in progress, Siegwart came to the realization of how much other people don’t know or don’t see in their own community. “Hopefully the exhibit will do that — help encourage the public to look around and see what there is,” he commented.

“It was extremely exciting to do the painting. People will see the paintings and comment that they never knew that place existed. There are common places that they drive by every day but don’t know are there,” he said, citing the old railroad bridge at Tunnel Green and the Stone Bridge in Elm Grove as examples.

He remarked, “We just become kind of complacent with our environment. This (exhibit) brings a little more focus to it.”

The Wheeling resident said the concept evolved from his initial inspiration for another project that he decided not to pursue. He said, “I was pondering the idea of doing the county seats of West Virginia, which would have been a lot of traveling to do in one year. Somehow, it did develop into what I did.”

A couple of works were created on-site as he painted “en plein air.”

The rest were done in his home studio or at Artworks Around Town, where Siegwart is a member artist.

Most of the paintings took two or three days to complete.

Prior to starting to paint each week, he scouted potential locations and took a series of photographs for reference. “Week by week, the work was determined by what I happened to run across,” he said.

However, before starting the project, he decided to do one painting each month of a place in Oglebay Park. As it turned out, the collection included 13 Oglebay paintings because, he said, “I happened to run into something paint-worthy at the moment.”

He also said, “I knew I was going to cover all of Wheeling — from Elm Grove to the Ohio River, from Warwood to South Wheeling — anything within the 26003 zip code.”

Since “Wheeling is not just buildings,” the artist made sure he included landscapes and scenes in the country, such as a barn on the Minch family farm.

Some weeks, it took a lot of driving before he found inspiration. One day, after several hours of futile searching, a disappointed Siegwart was heading home when he decided to stop at the Kroger store. By chance, he noticed a large flock of Canada geese along the banks of Wheeling Creek, and the sight provided the subject matter for that week’s effort.

On other occasions, the artist had to visit the same site several times over a period of weeks before the lighting and atmospheric conditions were just right for what he wanted to depict. He recalled that in some instances, “it took five or six times before I saw the light the right way. It took several weeks before I found it paint-worthy.”

As an example, he pointed to his painting of the Victoria Theatre, with the box office lights reflected on wet pavement of Market Street. He visited the site on a rainy night, then waited for the sun to rise to capture the visual effect he wanted.

“I kept trying to find views that other artists and photographers don’t usually do. I tried to look for the unusual point of view,” he said, pointing to his depiction of Coleman’s Fish Market from a different perspective.

He said, “I went there (to the fish market) three or four times before the conditions were right to get what I wanted to paint … I went five different times to the pond at Stifel (Fine Arts Center), probably in five different months.”

His wife and other artists or observers began offering suggestions of places to paint. “They’d say, ‘Look at this, look at the light.’ It became an unexpected group project,” he said. “I realized that peopler were starting to watch it, to see what was happening.”

Siegwart’s series was progressing on schedule until Aug. 22, when he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for a week. He was able to resume painting after returning home; his project was back on track within two weeks. He produced 19 paintings for the series after his stroke.

“The odd thing was I couldn’t write very well, but I could paint,” he said of his post-stroke condition. “My speech was really bad. My memory was messed up. But thankfully everything else is very good.”

Siegwart has received therapy at home and continues to make progress in his recovery. He said Tuesday, “It’s coming along. This week has shown a lot of improvement. My voice is a lot closer to what it was. It stays better longer.”

Doctors think a traumatic brain injury (sustained in an auto accident in 2000) probably contributed to the stroke. “Statistically, a person with a TBI will have another brain occurrence,” he said.

For Siegwart –who has been painting for about 50 years — art fueled his recovery from the traumatic brain injury 17 years ago. “It was because of painting that I was able to focus, that brought me in. It is what pulled me through,” he said.

“I’ve always painted. Throughout my various careers, I still did it,” he said. “I don’t know how not to do it.”

Now that the year-long project is finished, Siegwart has some commissioned works to produce, but he has not determined the next direction of his artistic endeavors.

It’s clear, though, that more painting is in his future. “I just like to paint — landscape or portrait or still life — to put the paint on canvas,” he said.

Siegwart, a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University, teaches art classes at Artworks Around Town and occasionally at Oglebay Institute’s Stifel Center. “If I’m not painting, I’m talking about it, so it’s natural,” he quipped.