Where ART Lives Magazine Volume 2 Number 3 | Page 54

Bob Shepherd
April 2016
What is your first memory of creating art?
Jack Webb. I drew Jack Webb in the 1st Grade. His mouth was shaped like a drop of rain, but
sideways. He had kind of a smirk and talked out of the side of his mouth. After that I was 8 or 9
and drew my Paw Paw while he was playing dominos. Nobody believed I drew him, because it
looked just like him, so I drew a few other relatives. I wish I still had that picture of Paw Paw.
Do you have a favorite artist you that you admire or that inspires you?
Easy, Johannes Vermeer. We visited his studio in Delft, and that was very inspiring. They had his
palette and even though I always say I paint using the Venetian Method I learned from Geoffrey
Laurence, Vermeer’s palette was very similar. Just a version from the 1600’s.
What do you listen to when you paint?
Usually just gray noise TV so I can concentrate. But on occasion I love to put on the Stones or 38
Special. Often, when I’m finishing a portrait, I have the subject sit so I can finish the eyes from
life. I tell them right up front that I’m going to look into their eyes, not AT their eyes. Once I was
finishing the portrait of a wonderful lady and I put on an original vinyl copy of the Mystic Moods
Orchestra’s “Night Tide”. I don’t know If you’ve ever heard this record but it’s some of the most
beautiful music ever, set to natural sounds. Imagine “Theme from a Summer Place” played with
waves crashing on a moonlit beach. When I finished an especially long set and the portrait was
finished the lady said she needed a cigarette. It was a great laugh.
What tool in your studio could you not live without?
My office pad that I paint on. I kno w everyone says that artists are messy and I am also, but my
studio, in Bentwater, is a beautiful room with a beautiful carpet, and my wife doesn’t like for me
to make a mess. My new studio in Cloudcroft, New Mexico has a concrete floor.
Do you have a favorite subject matter?
Yes, if it doesn’t exist on Earth or in the Universe or in my imagination I just don’t want to paint it.
I think I’d go crazy if I painted the same thing over and over. I know some artists have done very
well painting very similar paintings and they are known for their whatever’s, but I can’t do that.
If I think it’s beautiful, I want to paint it.

http://portraitsbyshep.com
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