Sierra Vista Artist in Spotlight

Photo courtesy of www.restevensart.com

Roderick E. Stevens has lived for 30 years in Sierra Vista, Arizona. His realistic acrylic paintings stood out to me among the hundreds of booths at the Scottsdale Arts Festival after I read the sign "These are not PHOTOGRAPHS they are paintings." But it wasn't just me who was intrigued, I ran into Alice Cooper getting information from Roderick on one of his paintings.

The brilliantly colored paintings are, to put it simply, amazingly realistic. Reflections and lighting are the highlights of the paintings, the parts that make the viewer confuse photograph with painting. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Roderick's work is that he has only been at it with intention for the past two years.

By trade Roderick is cinematographer for Indie films and music videos, but when he found himself in need of more of a spiritual connection he found his way back to painting, which he dabbled in as a child. Surprisingly, he considers his work his own private art school. Each painting is a challenge, each new technique is almost like a game to him. As with his paintings of fruit, where he nails the glare and listening liquid texture to perfection, they were proposed to him by a fellow artist and he greeted the challenge with complete enthusiasm.

Photo courtesy of restevensart.com

He has been touring for the past year and a half across the southwest, but has made his way to Texas and Florida where he said his paintings sell the best.

Although he was born and raised in Illinois he moved to Sierra Vista as a child and chose to stay there once he began raising his family, even though most of his cinematography work is in Los Angeles. Surprisingly, living so close the border he said neither his work nor his life are much influenced by his surroundings although he has experienced a few migrant border crosser incidences.

As a child his house was broken into twice by migrants. Once while filming a sunrise for one of his films, and group of heads began bobbing into his frame. Other than that, he lives and paints in Sierra Vista relatively unaffected by his surroundings as his subjects are varied but reflect nothing of the southwest.

Glass bottles so realistic you feel as if you can virtually see through them to the background, a shiny black Harley-Davidson motorcycle covered in chrome you can almost see your reflection in and a row of polished yellow, brown and baby blue guitars are just a few of Roderick's remarkable pieces.

Photo courtesy of restevensart.com

He calls it Contemporary Fine Art Photorealism, I call it genius.

For more of Roderick's work go to www.restevensart.com or find him at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair March 23-25.

Check out my footage from other events at the Scottsdale Arts Festival.