Retired doctor pivots from medicine to watercolors

The Pine Knot is delighted to be exhibiting Dr. Lloyd Backus' watercolors in our downtown Cloquet gallery through April. I recently sat down with Lloyd, surrounded by his paintings.

Lloyd was family physician for my Uncle Sidney, Aunt Laurel and cousins Martha, RuthAnn, Jana and David Markusen, helping them through births and a series of health challenges.

The retired doctor has lived a fascinating life so far.

Backus was born in China. His father was a medical missionary, working on behalf of the Dakota Wesleyan Church. The church asked his father as a young man what occupation he'd like to pursue. "I'd like to be in the sciences," he responded. The church suggested medicine and offered to pay his way through med school if he'd serve for six years thereafter. He ended up serving two six-year rotations in China.

In China until he was nine years old, Lloyd lived in a missionary compound.

"Both Dad and Mom loved it," he recalled. "I remember the beautiful blue roofs. We went to school in a rickshaw."

After further training, Lloyd's father returned to Mitchell, S.D. He'd seen a lot of tuberculosis in Beijing, and pursued further training in this specialty. He worked for the Glen Lake Sanatorium for a year and then landed a job at Nopeming during World War II. Eventually running the entire facility, he stayed until its TB unit closed.

Lloyd studied in the Proctor schools, followed by college at Macalester, where his sister and two brothers also studied. He earned a medical degree at the University of Minnesota and interned in Oakland, Calif. He wanted to go into primary care. Lloyd joined the U.S. Army after his internship and hoped to go overseas, but the Army turned him down because he already had children. So he served stateside.

Why Cloquet as a city for his practice?

"I came here because my brother Byron chose it. Our other brother, Gene, chose to be a pediatrician and practiced in Golden Valley."

Lloyd and Byron joined the Raiter Clinic. "It was the golden age of medicine," Lloyd mused. "It was very exciting work. Long hours, and a lot of night calls."

Lloyd thinks medicine is much harder now. "It's big business. They're having trouble finding doctors. Many women don't want to do obstetrics, because it's hard if you have a family at home. And you have to be able to do C-sections. And insurance is a problem."

Taking a break, Lloyd pursued surgical training for a year and a half. When he returned, he did appendectomies, but didn't care to do orthopedics.

"I liked the delicacy of surgery," he said, reflecting, "and that when we were finished, the patients were well. I made my share of mistakes - everybody makes mistakes - and that was not pleasant."

After retiring in 1991, Lloyd took up painting watercolors. His wife, Jan, encouraged him. She called around and found a good teacher, Joyce Gow, in Two Harbors. He joined the Lake Superior Watercolor Society.

"What I love about watercolors," Lloyd said, "is that if it is not good, you can just rip it up and throw it away."

Lloyd started out painting rivers and lakes. He tried to do a portrait of his granddaughter. "It didn't turn out too badly," he remembers. "But I don't have a lot interest in portraits. I like the landscapes."

Lloyd and Jan have travelled quite a bit since his retirement.

"We went back to China," he said. "And to Cairo. Our son was working at the American University of Cairo; he invited us to come visit. And to Italy. Mary Rice of the Lake Superior Watercolor Society organized a two-week trip for about 20 of us to Umbertide in central Italy. Every other day, they would pick us up and take us to a different place."

Whenever Lloyd takes a trip like this, he returns and "paints like mad."

Today, Lloyd is still painting, though less than he used to. That means he is throwing away fewer paintings too.

"I threw away half of my paintings," he said. "It was amusing: some people came and picked them out of our trash and said, 'Oh no,' and walked away with them."

Watercolors are a second career and new occupation for Lloyd.

"I get on the internet and drool over others' paintings," he admitted. "But then Jan says, 'but they can't take out an appendix.' "

Painting is an intellectual enterprise.

"I keep looking for new ideas," he said. "I don't have long-term plans. I know I'm not a Vermeer or Rembrandt. I've given away many of my paintings, and other people have bought them."

Lloyd misses all the things they used to do: skiing, biking and travelling.

"I don't fish anymore," he said. "I just ride along in the boat. But the painting sustains me."

Lloyd Backus' current exhibit at the Pine Knot News office in Cloquet's West End will run through April. All are invited to stop by and view his watercolors during regular Pine Knot News office hours, 9-5 Mondays and Tuesdays, 9-6:30 Wednesdays, 11-4 Thursdays and 9-1 Fridays, at 122 Ave. C in Cloquet.

His show paintings, except for two, are for sale.

Ann Markusen is an economist and professor emerita at University of Minnesota. A Pine Knot board member, she lives in Red Clover Township north of Cromwell with her husband, Rod Walli.