Artist's work featured at gallery reception

There will be an artist reception for featured artist, Ric Rose, at Artistic Viewpoints 5-7 p.m. Tuesday. Rose's work will be the focal point at the gallery for the month of July through Aug. 8 when the show will be replaced by the father-and-daughter team of photographer, Robert Feltman and artist, Karen Aleman.

Gardnerville resident Rose has had a long career as an artist. For 30 years he was an illustrator for Lockheed in Simi Valley, Calif.

"I was a pair of hands for someone else's ideas," Rose said about his career "But, I always did my own thing on the side."

Rose started to do cartoon character drawings of employees for special occasions, birthdays, retirements and the like. His 18- by 20-inch renderings became so popular that Rose figures he has probably produced 6,000 of these drawings during his career as an illustrator for Lockheed.

For Rose, his art career was a matter of natural skill and being in the right place at the right time. He had always intended a career in an art-related field, but a war and the draft kept him from completing his studies at the Academy of Art San Francisco. When his tour of duty was done, he came back to the Bay area and tried to figure out what to do with his life. His father, an illustrator in his own right, told him about a position as an illustrator and filled him with the confidence to give it a try.

Rose always worked on the side to do more fulfilling works, things he wanted to do that expressed his love of nature, of his surroundings and of fascinating people which he brings to life on canvas. At first he worked in oils but found that he was allergic to them so he switched his medium to acrylic and has used it ever since. Besides, as a commercial artist, acrylic was more time efficient.

"As a commercial artist you can't sit around waiting for things to dry," Rose said. "You have deadlines."

After Rose's retirement in 1998, he moved to Lake Tahoe and then to Carson Valley. Here Rose was finally able to bloom into a "real" artist, allowing his imagination to have no limits and painting subjects that appeal to him and not doing things because he has to. His years as a commercial artist have been an advantage to him. It gave him the ability to draw just about any type of subject. He has done many wild life scenes of birds, primarily ducks.

One of his favorite things is going down to Martin Slough near his home in Chichester Estates.

"I go down there with a lot of oyster crackers to feed the ducks. The ducks are so tame that they come right up to me. Then I take my camera and shoot like crazy so I get great close-ups to use for my paintings," Rose said. "There are more than just the ducks there. I have seen egrets, herons and even swans, but they aren't as tame as the ducks and I can't get as close with the camera."

Rose has been working on a series of paintings of Carson Valley which will be the cornerstone of his show at Artistic Viewpoints.

Artistic Viewpoints is located at 1368 Highway 395, Suite B Gardnerville, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 to 5 on Saturday. For more information about this event and other up-coming features and classes at the gallery call 783-0633.

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