Forrest launched his current career on Main Street in Woods Hole, painting pictures for passers-by.

Several years ago while walking along the picturesque main street of Woods Hole, I noticed a crowd gathered in front of the old fire house next door to the Woods Hole Community Center. My curiosity getting the better of me, I went over to investigate and found that the focus of attention was an artist. On his large canvas, mounted on an easel, he was painting an idyllic Cape Cod scene - a sailboat floating serenely on a glassy blue sea. The artist, in his most recent incarnation, was Forrest Pirovano. 

Forrest was born in Wood Ridge, NJ, but when he was 14 years old his dad was transferred to Canton, Ohio. After high school he enrolled in a Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Kent State University but left at the age of 19 to join the Navy. While stationed aboard the aircraft carrier Essex during the Vietnam War, his ship was in an accident with a nuclear submarine and was sent to Boston for repairs. It was there that he met Shirley. They married in1967.

After a three-year tour in the Navy, Forrest enrolled in the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and following graduation came east. He worked for an ad agency and then did art and design work for companies including Mammoth Mart, Stop & Shop, and Iandoli's, among others. Along the way he taught art and design at Tri-County Regional Vocational School and did freelance advertising to supplement his teaching income.

In 1982 he started an ad agency producing and printing circulars for super markets and other retail establishments. "We had clients from New Jersey and Pennsylvania as far west as Buffalo, New York. Once a week, our small fleet of six 24' box trucks and four vans loaded up at a printing plant outside of Philadelphia and delivered the circulars to our clients or mail houses. So at the same time that I was in the ad business I was also in the trucking business. But the trucks were not being fully utilized so I started doing contract trucking for Roberts Express out of Akron, Ohio."

Driving as part of a NASA team took Forrest all over the country, delivering satellite parts and defense cargo.

In 1987 Forrest sold his ad agency and bought a small van, and until 2001he did all kinds of trucking services, all over the country. "We were what they called an 'expedited freight company.'' He joined a team basically working for NASA. Their services ran the gamut from "white glove" trucking - carrying small, often delicate high priority items - to escort and pilot services for huge oversized shipments for NASA, defense contractors and other government agencies. Some of the items escorted were satellites and parts of satellites, weaponry and even the Hubble Space Telescope. 

"I love to drive," Forrest says. "Shirley traveled with me and was my co-driver for 11 of those years. Driving as a team we were able to make cross-country runs. I had to retrofit the van to accommodate a sleeping area. We toured the country. It was an exciting, interesting time; I drove about two million miles and went through three trucks."

Forrest had the opportunity to drive his Duck Boat in two Boston Red Sox World Series championship parades. Here, he & Shirley pose in Fenway Park with the Series trophy.

Forrest and Shirley have been residents of Southport since 2003. When I ask, "What brought you to Southport," his one word answer is "Shirley." After graduating from Lesley College in Cambridge and earning a Masters degree from Wheelock, Shirley became a reading specialist teaching for 27 years for the Norwell Public Schools. They were living in Marshfield at the time, and Shirley would come to the Cape to visit friends. She had always wanted to live here and had seen and been impressed by Southport. Forrest also liked the amenities, the golf course, and the Village Center. "I really love it," he says, "and we are very happy here."

"Sven the Viking" had a ten-year career as a Duck Boat driver on the streets of Boston and the waters of the Charles River.

In 2001, Forrest heard that Boston Duck Tours was looking for drivers. "I had to go through a three-part audition before I was hired. You had to become well versed in the history of Boston as well as licensed to operate this huge vehicle." Forrest became known at Southport as "The Duck Boat Driver." Big, amiable, quick to smile, Forrest in his Duck Boat persona of "Sven the Viking," tooled around the streets of Boston and sailed up the Charles River, quacking out greetings to thousands of tourists, visitors and home folks while performing his duties as official tour guide and licensed duck boat captain. During his Duck Boat tenure, Forrest was lucky to have the opportunity to captain his boat in two World Series parades for the Red Sox. "As captain of a Duck Boat, I  had the chance to meet actors and politicians and some really terrific people. It was a blast," he says. "I did that for ten years but I always knew that my last job would be painting. That's how I pictured myself, painting."

"I set up my easel in front of the old firehouse in Woods Hole and painted just for the joy of it. I hadn't even thought about selling my work but I was working one day when a young couple from Cleveland, Ohio, introduced themselves. They were on their way to Martha's Vineyard but wanted to buy the piece I was working on. They offered me $100 and picked up their new painting when they returned from the Vineyard. As a matter of fact, they were with their entire family and they ended up buying three pieces. That was my first real sale and it gave me the idea that perhaps my work was salable." 

I asked Forrest about his work and his technique for creating his art. "I usually start from a small sketch or perhaps a photograph and then move up to a 5 x 7 in which I compose the subject, decide on my colors, etc., then I use that to paint an 11 x14 piece. Those are actually my roughs for my larger paintings."

Forrest outside of his highly successful gallery in  Mashpee Commons.

Two summers ago Forrest rented a small gallery at 12 Market St. in Mashpee Commons across the walkway from Bleu (the French restaurant) as a test to gauge the level of interest in his work and his subject matter. The response has been amazing. His friend and Southport neighbor Sandi Abrams helps him out with the day-to-day operation of the gallery, keeping him organized, framing his work, allowing Forrest to focus on his painting, which often includes special commissions. Over the years Forrest has been very magnanimous, donating original oil paintings for the Southport Scholarship Committee raffle.

We talk about his various careers and the unforeseen twists and turns of life. "You know," Forrest says, "when I was a small boy I wanted to become a truck driver and often, driving around the country, I thought how lucky I was to have been able to do that. Also, I was born with a talent to draw and now I've achieved another life-long goal - making art."  "So what's your next career," I ask. "This is it," he says. "I love what I'm doing and I'm going to keep doing it as long as I'm able and people want to buy my work."