Seduction - Dick Roberts

Illustration by Dick for Jeff's 2009 book "Chatter in the Canopy" - Booksurge, Charleston, SC. ISBN 13: 978-1439214817

Seduction

It's the sand in your voice that lures me.

That and the moonlight buttering your long ribs.

You can shout into the wind through cupped hands.

I can smell the salt and wet canvas.

What if I surrender to your rolling, black valleys

To the tops of mountains, kissed away?

When we collapse flat-faced and ordinary

On tar-colored foam and a dead skate - what then?

-Jeff Roberts 2009

Chatter in the Canopy at Etsy.com

www.etsy.com/shop/opmjeff

Seascape - Dick Roberts

Seascape
1962
24" x 30"
Oil with pallete knife on canvas

Some of Dick's seascapes had titles. Most did not. This one, from 1962, was just called Seascape.

Dick painted a lot of seascapes. And good ones, too. Almost everyone in the extended Roberts-Pinkney family has at least one in some prime spot in our homes.

The family vacationed on Cape Cod every year in the '50s and '60s. Dick did his "plein air" thing in Brewster and Eastham and environs.

In those days we were allowed to play on the dunes. Dick would roll down the dunes with us kids as if he were one of us. We'd walk along the water line in the morning and "comb". It was a treat to come across a dead skate washed up. After some prodding to make sure it was dead, one of us would use its tail as a handle and fling it back into the waves - to washup again for the next comber.

See skate post here.
http://rjroberts.blogspot.com/2011/01/seduction-dick-roberts.html

The Digger - Dick Roberts

The Digger

A family favorite. This was hung at the foot of the stairs, off the living room, in Dick's house in Stamford. The Digger greeted everyone who needed to use the bathroom upstairs. Some visitors chose to wait.

Oil on board - 1960. Nearly life-size, approx. 30" x 48"

Current owner: Alison Andrade (Roberts) daughter. Washington, Maine.

August Night - R. J. Roberts

A little Hopper, a little Delos Palmer, a little Dick Roberts.

Oil on canvas. 1959. Probably 18" x 24" or slightly larger

Photo says last owned by Dot Pinkney, which is Dorothy Cowles Pinkney, noted poet from Rowayton CT. Oh yeah, and my maternal Grandmother. Dot's been dead since 1973, and I don't remember seeing this in her house or since. Time to query the relatives and see if I can locate the current owner.

Comments welcome.

-Jeff

Old Light North Eastham - R. J. Roberts

Oil on canvas 1972 24" x 30"

This hung at the top of Dad's stairs at 69 Pepper Ridge road for many years. I longed for it to hang in my house. Dad said I could have it as soon as he "fixed" it.

He claimed that he had been told that the actual color of the tower of the Old Light was different from the color he used, and he wanted to repaint it to match the actual color. Of course he never got around to finding time to do that. It remains the color Dad had in his memory. This is one of his best Cape Cod landscapes.

The Red Ball

1965 Oil on canvas.

Last known owner is Joan Mary Bassaro.

I heard recently that she was sill living in Stamford. Can anyone confirm? If so, where?

Delos Palmer's Studio

I think Dad said that this early Stamford studio was bulldozed in the 70s. This may be a scarce artifact. Oil on canvas board. 1943.