Dad's oil Paintings Part 1 of 2

These are some of my father's paintings.  I have all of these in my house at this point.



The face of Christ, Oil on Plywood
by Donald L. Roberts c. 1970

Inspiration came from a Time Magazine cover of an Anti-War protester or Hippie.  This one often startled friends who came over to the house when I was young.  I suppose the scale (life size) and its placement in a rather dark hallway had them thinking some stern man was watching from the shadows.  He never really scared me.  It is not one of my real big time favorites but I like the glazing work and that it is on a traditional wood base rather than a canvas.
 


Mother and Chilld, oil on canvas board, by Donald L. Roberts c. 1983

 

This portrait is of me and my mother.  I have vivid memories of posing for the pictures dad worked off of to make the painting.  He was recently home from the U.S.S.R. (Russia) and we are dressed to look as if we might be a mother and son who live there.  Mom is shown wearing one of the Ushanka's Dad brought back with him.  Mom's was mink, He had a big grey chinchilla one and mine is made with rabbit fur.  Here I am simply in a knit stocking cap.  The image lets you see the texture produced by the canvas board.  Compare the look to the "Face of Christ" or David and Bathsheba."  You will also see the textured style Dad would often use.  His oils rarely had the the smooth glazed look and those that did tended to be among his earlier paintings.  More and more he used a thicker textured application of the paint.



Harley on Banton sofa with prince Ah-Ha in the foreground,
 Dad's portrait of me and mom on the wall and
my handwoven Red Tensile stole draped on the back of the Sofa. February 2011



What I do like in this image is that it has a somewhat chilling theme.  Amoung Dad's paintings there are a handfull that strike me as more artisticly noteworthy.  Where many works depict meaning full places or people, they are nicely done and for those who he made the piece or for close friends and family etc. they are very meaningful but I don't necessarily find the work possessed of a voice or message that is more broadly pitched.  Similarly many demonstrate fine skill and style choices but are sort of painted snap shots.  This is one that I think employs a more sophisticated and intentionally meaningful composition.

So what meaning to I ascribe to it.  As I said it produces a bit of a chill for me.  I see a driven woman who is navigating toward the future in her work of steering or driving this child.  She sees the child and exists independent of him but also sees and operates through him.  I guess part of the artistry I appreciate in this work is in that it evokes a feeling and captures a moment in some story that is not really me and my mom and yet it is also very much a portrait of us.



2 Oils by Donald L. Roberts c. 1985



These Two smaller works, shown hanging above each other, are perhaps my all time favorite paintings I have of my Dad's.  Both are oils, both depict life in Lancaster county Pennsylvania, both are on a much smaller scale than most of his work, both are decidedly impressionistic in style, and both employ some degree of drama in the composition.



Studdy in oil on canvas paper, by Donald L. Roberts c. 1980

 The painting of an Amish man and his son is on canvas paper and I believe was intended as a small sketch of what was to be a much bigger piece.  My Dad seems to be enamored and certainly admires those who execute realism effectively.  It is not like him to have a faceless figure.  It is this hurried and effortlessness, creativity in the raw that I like and it is to me a masterpiece in its own right and lacks nothing for having never been employed in the production of some grander work as was intended.

The other small work is on canvas board and though a completed work it was also produced quickly and with little detail.  The barn is centered horizontally but not vertically.  With nothing but snow the barn seems the obvious subject or focus for the work and yet it is almost escaping off the top edge of the canvas perched far closer to the top of the images vertical access than we might expect.  The snow was largely achieved by flicking wet paint from a tooth brush.  It has been yellowed over the years from cigarette smoke but it works.  Aside from any visual merit I must recognize that part of what I like is that this is Mrs. Whitmer's barn and this is what I might have seen from an upstairs window in the first house I remember growing up in. 



Mrs. Whitmer's Barn in snow storm, oil on canvas board
by Donald L. Roberts, 1984