Roger Blum
'On Higher Ground'
Roger Blum
'Autumn Morning'
Roger Blum
'Upland Scout'
Roger Blum
'Away From It All'
Roger Blum
'High Fives Coming'
Roger Blum
'The Wild and Beautiful'
Roger Blum
'Quiet Expectation'
Roger Blum
'Salmon Seekers'
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Born and
raised in Watsonville, California, Roger spent much of his youth hunting,
fishing, and exploring the natural world around him. It was in his senior
year in high school that he first enrolled in an art class. When his
teacher showed him some sporting images by Winslow Homer, Roger said a
buzz went through him that has never left. “I knew then, this was what I
wanted to do, and I set my heart to that end.”
Roger’s father, being an avid sportsman of both field and stream, spawned
in his son the desire for knowledge and experience that gives Roger’s art
its credibility. Roger graduated from college with a B.A. in Commercial
Art and a Master’s degree in illustration. He studied with two masters of
both oil and watercolor, Vernon Nye, AWS, and Tom Nicholas, NA, AWS.
Drafted into the Army In 1965, Roger was chosen to be one of five enlisted
men to go to Viet Nam as a combat Artist. This was the first time the Army
solicited enlisted artists, to volunteer for combat duty in a war zone.
Some of these paintings have been exhibited in the Pentagon in Washington
D.C., the Indiana Museum of Art and numerous other traveling War Art
venues.
While finishing his Master’s Degree at San Jose State University, an art
recruiter from Hallmark Cards came to the campus and on the strength of
Roger’s watercolors and sporting themes, hired him on the spot. “I found
out later, that the recruiter himself was an avid sportsman which probably
helped my chances. He later invited me on a quail hunt shortly after I
arrived in Kansas City.”
After two years at Hallmark Cards, Roger accepted a call to teach Art at
the college level where he taught for thirteen years and chaired two
college Art departments. “I learned a lot in the classroom, says Roger,
and I loved every day of it. My students challenged everything I knew and
exposed everything I didn’t know. In 1984, I decided it was time for me to
move on and devote all my energies to painting. I felt my migration time
had come to step out and trust my wings at being a full time painter.”
Roger moved to New England where he would begin his new career as a
Sporting Artist. He settled into Dublin, New Hampshire, a charming area in
the Manadnock region of southern New Hampshire, an area rich in artistic
history and sublime landscapes.
In 1992, while visiting his father in California, Roger met Renée, his
sweetheart and wife to be. They soon married, lived in Colorado for awhile
then on to Wisconsin where they now reside.
Roger continues his passion to paint field and stream and capture in his
work those memories familiar to all who love the world of the wild and
beautiful. |
