Brooklyn Arts Center Painting by Roger Tatum
You could say the earlier, simpler days growing up on a Southeastern North Carolina farm surrounded by family shaped artist Roger Tatum’s fascination with natural settings. Farm life, fishing boats, barns and picturesque landscapes resonate with him to this day. He finds the way people interact with these settings far from ordinary.
Roger could always draw, and he wanted to use that skill, so he enrolled in commercial design at the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. He channeled his creativity into a successful advertising career, eventually owning his own advertising agency, which he sold in 2005. It was then that he picked up the brushes and totally surrendered to his passion for visual art. He always knew his focus would be watercolor, specifically en plein air. He loves to find settings that inspire him, like morning and afternoon scenes with their certain light and shadows. His favorite painting he’s done is called “Moravian Baker,” which shows an older man baking in the Moravian tradition and it struck a chord with him.
“I like painting nature but I also like putting people in nature, but when I do, my preference is to make it a slice of life,” Tatum said.
Tatum has won many art awards from several art associations, including the Watercolor Society of NC’s Strathmore Artist Award 2019, Oak Island Art Guild Best of Show, and the Southport NC Annual Plein Air Art Newton Award. He has traveled the world painting and teaching watercolors.
Roger took the downtime of the recent quarantine to gather inspiration for his commissioned painting of the Brooklyn Arts Center. He knows the venue well. He holds his annual watercolor workshop in the upstairs Annex, with its pristine natural light, and outdoor painting on the BAC grounds.
“This place is a story in itself,” he said. “That’s what I’m about. When I paint, I think a painting should tell a story.”
The piece is on the largest paper they make for watercolor called an elephant sheet. He used more than 50 snapshots and images to draw inspiration from. “A Day at the Brooklyn Arts Center” depicts a beautiful sunny day, full of people enjoying wedding festivities, which captures the charm, ambiance and energy of the venue.
“Paintings tell stories,” he said. “The painting that I’ve just done here, you’ve noticed I put people in. I lead the eye to the people. And there’s a story in there. There’s mystery in the corners in the soft edges over there. It’s telling a story and I’m hoping that that will be a story that relates to your brides and to your mothers of the brides.”
The Brooklyn Arts Center has held more than six hundred weddings, and each wedding holds a special place in the hearts of the couples. Prints that our brides and grooms can cherish as a keepsake for years to come are available for purchase.
To find out more about Roger Tatum’s work or to purchase prints of “A Day at the Brooklyn Arts Center,”
click the link below.
Buy the Painting Here
