It takes a very skilled artist to capture the likeness of a person in a painting or drawing. Skip Rohde is a figurative artist who aims even higher. He talks in his interview about his intention to capture something of the personality, the essence of his subjects.
Skip has been in the unique position of painting not only models paid to pose, but also has done a good deal of creating art featuring people in real life situations, people most definitely not holding still for the artist. And, notably, a good many of his subjects were in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will let Skip explain for himself why he traveled to those war-torn countries and the artwork that resulted from his time there.
In this interview, we talk about Skip’s various series of paintings, sketches and drawings–Meditation on War, Faces of Afghanistan, Portraits of Iraq, and his latest series with studio models in which is he exploring a new approach (see example above).
I am putting a parental warning on this episode, because the topic of war does come up, including the social/physical costs of war. I know most children are probably aware of the reality of war in this age of information overload, but out of respect for parents who might be sheltering their children from such knowledge, I decided to give parents a heads up.
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To connect with Skip and see more of his work:
- SCROLL down!
- visit his websites http://www.skiprohde.com and http://ashevilleeventpaintings.com
- follow his Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/Studio.of.Skip.Rohde and https://www.facebook.com/Asheville.Event.Paintings
- follow Skip on Instagram: skiprohde
Highlights of episode include:
- what on earth this artist was doing in Iraq and Afghanistan
- the very important message Skip aims to get across with his paintings from the Meditation on War series
- how Skip’s work landed in the Smithsonian
- his exciting new venture, Asheville Event Paintings
- what it was like to serve as a courtroom artist
- Skip’s suggestions for other artists on how to move forward in their own work
Local resources and artists mentioned during this episode:
- Skip’s workshops for artists are on this page of his website. He also has information for artists about his weekly open studio figure sessions on the same page of his site.
- Leo Monahan’s Local Hearted Podcast interview
- Asheville Urban Landscape Painters
- Cindy Walton’s blog
More examples of Skip’s work:
Thank you, Skip and Meredith. I enjoyed the amazing art work and interview, and…I will be reflecting for a long time on the idea that an artist makes the first brush stroke and then the rest of the process is about fixing that first mistake..being a lyricist who is still fixing works started decades previous, I find this a hilarious truism!
A rich exchange. Loved the seriousness and the lightheartedness. Life and art.