His first wife, Judy, and her husband, Duncan, Hal and Patricia’s dearest friends, shared memories and massaged his feet, continuing the joyful connection to the end. Hal spent his life bringing people together, and he passed peacefully listening to ocean sounds in his El Paso home with a gentle smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was inspired by the permanence of the masters, like Modigliani and Matisse; people that lived long ago but persevered in their influence for centuries. In addition to the legacy, the lifestyle of an artist was irresistible to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lowenfield-Marcus-2019-931x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
Luke Lowenfield, left, and Hal Marcus collaborated in 2019 on the children’s book “Buenas Noches El Paso.” (Photo courtesy of Luke Lowenfield)<\/p>\n
Hal needed freedom to travel and meet interesting people, to be his own boss and enjoy control over his schedule. He was probably his hardest boss, given his uncompromising execution of what he saw \u2013 in this world and beyond it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He often painted himself with wings because he felt like an angel when he did his work. There were times he would finish a piece, and then marvel at the miracle of its creation \u2013 like, \u201cHow did this happen?!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was his favorite artist, and his favorite work was always the one he was working on. It wasn\u2019t prideful, it was his true calling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In light of the passion that fueled his incessant creativity, his ability to turn around and sell the artwork was all the more remarkable. He loved seeing others with his paintings.<\/p>\n
Almost never would he tell what he saw on the canvas or what he intended with it. Giving his opinion, he said, would just get in the way. He wanted each viewer to find their meaning and get excited about the connections they found with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One piece that he broke his rule with is called \u201cQuiet Time,\u201d made with patches of his signature shirts, over which he painted a male figure and a female figure, seated back-to-back, with a red tulip rising between them and hanging over them. Hal explained to me his idea that we all need to take a break sometimes to think and reflect, and nature will always bring us back together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nature was where Hal admired the great artist. In one of our last talks, Hal said, \u201cI want to tell everyone to chill out. People need to know: God is everywhere at all times, not an old man with a beard. The whole point of life is to enjoy God\u2019s glory, and you do that by hanging out with your kids, by looking at the birds and the trees and butterflies, by seeing new species emerging. Things evolve, we evolve, too. It\u2019s OK, I\u2019m just getting into a different vehicle,\u201d referencing John Lennon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy real religion is creativity,\u201d he told me, as he described his passionate curiosity and willingness to do hard things. \u201cIf it\u2019s not a big challenge, it\u2019s not worth doing,\u201d he said in agreement with Picasso.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His eyes had grown tired as he was sharing this with me, and he tried looking at his calendar, a little frustrated and unable to make out the dates. He said, \u201cBy April 13, I\u2019ll be on the other side \u2026 you can\u2019t really plan these things, but that\u2019s the intention. I\u2019ll go as deep, spiritually, as I can, then I\u2019ll say, \u00a1Adios, Amigos!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I will live and die differently because of Hal. He would not tell everyone to be an artist like him because that was \u201cHal\u2019s way.\u201d Rather, he would cheer us all on in finding our passion and living it fully every day, with loved ones in beloved places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A life of sovereign choice and creative freedom is what he modeled for us. May we all be so devoted to the fleeting masterpiece of our life, and may everyone get the joy of having a friendship like the one Hal gave me.<\/p>\n
Luke Lowenfield is an El Paso author who wrote three children\u2019s books that were illustrated by Hal Marcus.<\/p>\n
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/elpasomatters.org\/2026\/04\/12\/hal-marcus-final-days-art-legacy-el-paso\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/elpasomatters.org”>El Paso Matters<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/elpasomatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/cropped-epmatters-favicon2.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n
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