Tom Steigerwald, artist and teacher

IF YOU WERE one of Tom Steigerwald's art students and you couldn't paint a lick, you didn't have anything to worry about. Tom would love you anyway.

"I'm sure he saw a lot of schlocky stuff over the years, but he was always very encouraging no matter what level you reached," said a former student, Janine Pratt.

This was one side of the character of a man who didn't hesitate to express his displeasure with painting he didn't like outside the classroom. He could be scathing, and he didn't hold back on his opinions on other subjects, no doubt strongly expressed in the meetings of the philosophy club he belonged to.

Tom Steigerwald, whose dramatic and larger-than-life renderings of flowers won him a devoted following among serious collectors and local galleries, died of cancer June 9. He was 65 and lived in Elkins Park.

He grew up in poverty in a hardscrabble section of North Philadelphia. It was at Lincoln High School that Tom became inspired to be an artist.

His art teacher and lifelong mentor was William Kuchler, who now lives in Hungary. Tom graduated from Lincoln in 1964 and attended the Tyler School of Art on a full scholarship, graduating in 1968.

He taught at Drexel University, the Moore College of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Cheltenham Art Center.

In addition to his art, Tom had something of a second career teaching English to hundreds of Asian immigrants and otherwise preparing them for careers in the U.S.

One of the highlights of Tom's his artistic career was being chosen to show his work in 1970 at the Whitney Annual of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York.

His paintings are in many private collections. His work was featured in the Philadelphia Horticulture Society's Green Scene magazine in 1990, and the American Rose Society magazine in 1997.

He also had a one-man show at Longwood Gardens in 1998.

Tom worked in acrylic paints to create masterful trompe l'oeil paintings of flowers. He called on extensive skills he devleoped over the years in draftsmanship, pespective and color harmony.

His creations required a manual dexterity with tools as well as the paint brush to achieve a bas relief effect with masonite.

Tom was always well turned out, no matter the job - or the heat. He wore his customary dress shirt, tie, vest and pants, with suspenders, even while working.

"He looked like he stepped out of a Manet painting," said one of his art students, Karoline Adler, a lawyer.

Tom and his wife, Patrice, moved to Elkins Park in 1993, after living in Olney. They bought an old firehouse that they painstakingly restored, creating a studio space and a wild English garden full of rustic charm.

He had a deep botanic knowledge. He knew the Latin name of every plant - and its history.

As a volunteer English teacher, Tom taught immigrants from Cambodia, Korea and China, and more recently college students from across Asia who landed in the region.

Starting in 1979, he took food and clothing to his students and to appointments for health care or their legal status. Many went on to successful professional careers in their adopted country.

Tom is survived by his wife - and his devoted pit bull, Bean.

Services: A memorial service will be held in July.