Rick's creations

This is Va Tech basketball coach Mike Young, enjoying (?) his customary pregame popcorn. I’d credit the photo if I knew who took it. But I liked it. And Coach Young.

This is the Cascades Recreation Area north of Blacksburg. From a photo on a beautiful Fall hike with high school classmates Gary Reed and Terry Kelly. The falls are older and prettier than we are.

When I can’t find anything personal, or think of anything creative, I find a photo I like and paint it. I like elephants. How could anyone not?

This is my niece Whitney, right, and her new bride Susie. A wedding gift, hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it.

They just look male, right? I like bulldogs, I think they are bizarre. I had a very different concept for this painting, and I hated it, so it evolved to this. I might do more bulldogs.

Just from a photo I liked. Always looking for stuff to paint. This one looks much more vivid in person, blues don’t come through in the photos.

I’d had this thought percolating for awhile about how important sports figures are in the modern era as catalysts for social change. So I decided to do a Rushmore of Black men who were instrumental in the civil rights movement. I chose men from four sports, three of whom were giant figures when I was coming of age.

I thought I would do a Rushmore-like treatment, but I’m not skilled enough to make them recognizable as stone carvings. So I went with more lifelike depictions. I was going to use charcoal and paint as I had with my recent work of the two coaches, but I decided instead on charcoal and pastel on paper.

Extra credit to all who can identify all four of them.

Just a random photo I found on-line. I tied to do it more in an impressionistic style, but I sit too close to the canvas to do that.

This is from a photo that Leslie Gregg posted of her pond near Blacksburg. I think she said their names were Hansel and Gretel, but it might have been Lucy and Ethel. No, probably not, given the babies. Anyway, I loved the photo.

This is from a shot of two Christiansburg high football coaches, Omar Ross (left) and Buddy Earp. It’s from an excellent picture, photographer unknown to me, taken around 1968? Buddy and Omar were principals who touched a lot of lives, and are remembered fondly by many.

This piece is my first in multiple media, in this case charcoal and oil.