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The blues infuse Fredericksburg artist Robert Landeck's work like 'Jazz Guitar,' a mixed-media painting. |
A guitar looks at home in Robert Landeck's basement family room.
But the 33-year-old Fredericksburg man leaves the playing to the blues musicians he admires.
He prefers to capture the emotion of their songs and their souls with the stroke of a brush instead of a guitar pick.
Musicians like blues legends John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson provide inspiration for his acrylic paintings.
"I feel like I'm paying homage to these masters," said Landeck.
That includes blues musicians who have entertained audiences at New Orleans jazz festivals or in smoky bars in Fredericksburg.
A piece he did of the late local blues artist "Jammin' Sam" Thomas will be on display at an exhibit called "Looking For America" that begins Friday. The Bethesda show features 50 pieces from national painters, sketch artists and photographers from around the country. It's sponsored by the Capitol Arts Network and StateArt.
Landeck also has artwork at Eyeclopes Gallery's "Urban Art Attack" exhibit at 810 Caroline St. and the "Uniquely Fredericksburg" exhibit at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library at 1201 Caroline St.
He is relatively new to the Fredericksburg art scene. Landeck grew up in Spotsylvania County but didn't become interested in painting until college. He took art classes at Germanna Community College and concentrated in painting at Virginia Commonwealth University.
He creates pieces from unlikely scraps of wood or cardboard that has been discarded.
"I try to take the everyday throw-away materials and make something out of them," said Landeck from the Winchester Street home he shares with his wife, Cameron, and 5-year-old son, Zane.
Among the recyclables, he finds ready-made frames in "throw-away" cabinet doors from the kitchen shop where Cameron works. Sometimes he can use the wood as a canvas; other times he cuts up the panels for a collage-type effect.
He's just as apt to use scrap mat board normally tossed aside while making photo mats.
He incorporates textures from interesting fabric or pictures taken from magazines.
One three-dimensional wood sculpture features a blues artist wearing a straw hat and strumming a guitar. Another is a collage of a guitar created by "happy coincidence." Landeck said he didn't like the painting so he cut it into odd shapes and arranged the pieces on another painted background.
Landeck works mostly at night with blues music wafting in the background.
"It helps move the process along," he said.
He waits tables part time while honing the talent he hopes will eventually allow him to paint full time. It also gives him the opportunity to help home-school Zane.
Landeck's love of the blues and the musicians shines through most all of his work.
He's taken scenes from blues musicians he's seen at an annual jazz festival in New Orleans. Landeck snaps a photo of the artist and uses the picture as a reference for his work.
"I try to link the musical emotion visually," Landeck said. "The feelings you get when you see them sing. You feel their pain. You feel their joy."
He first heard "Jammin' Sam" in Fredericksburg when he and Cameron scouted for a musician to play at their wedding six years ago.
"We caught him at an open-mike night. He could almost make you cry when he played his harmonica," Landeck. "He's the one who first sparked my interest in the subject."
Landeck said he told Sam Thomas that he was the subject of some of his art, but Thomas never got to see any of the pieces.
Last spring, after Thomas died of lung cancer, Landeck donated a 3- by 4-foot painting of the artist for a benefit auction held to defray his funeral costs.
"I felt like I was giving something back," Landeck said.
He's found insight from other local blues musicians. His painting of John Cephas and Phil Wiggins is on exhibit at the "Uniquely Fredericksburg" show. Cephas, who lives in Woodford, and Wiggins, who lives in Washington, perform a Piedmont style of the blues all over the country.
Landek said he feels fortunate to find such talented musicians and soulful subjects so close to home.
"That's the awesome thing," said Landeck. "They're playing in my back yard."
To reach MARTY MORRISON: 540-374-5423 mmorrison@freelancestar.com
