CHUCK ROLLER

I enjoy the creativity and expression of painting with oils. I liken it to the same mind freeing relaxing experience as steelhead fishing where I can think of nothing but my bait moving on the river bottom, bouncing over rocks, around and through the eddies and with free natural movement that a fish may want to nibble and then…success as a fisherman.

Art for me is solitude, with light wind blowing and appreciating the landscape of light and shadows playing on trees, shrubs and cactus. Clouds either observed or imagined and put to canvas. A Color or hue either observed or maybe just imagined and the effect or brightness is put to canvas. I started formal art training at 11 years of age doing charcoal drawings under artist Vern LaVern.

I then moved to pastels and oils until I quit at age 15 to do teenage boy things.

I had a gap of 50 years until taking up oils again due to encouragement of my friend Jim Gola.

I like oils best because I can gradually create, build and experiment in an impressionist style I am self-taught, tough on myself and gain from critique by friends and my wife Sue. Mainly I paint for myself and appreciate critique by friends and family. My favorite subject matter is landscapes with emphasis on Northwest forest, water and mountains and Southwest Sonoran Desert in particular areas surrounding Ajo Arizona.