If you’ve lived in Roanoke for more than few months you’ve probably heard of Eric Fitzpatrick, the painter and sometimes mixed-media artist voted “Best Artist” 25 years in a row by readers of The Roanoke Magazine. Fitzpatrick tackles often-popular subjects, like scenes and landscapes familiar to many – including his Texas Tavern pieces – but routinely mixes it up with series of paintings that can be more challenging.
He exhibits somewhat infrequently in local galleries but can always be found at the annual Sidewalk Art Show in the spring, wearing his multi-colored casual pants, talking up a storm with people that wander into his booth. Now diehard fans and the plain curious can see Fitzpatrick in a new local documentary produced by Blue Ridge Public Television. Eric Fitzpatrick: I’m Painting my Life premiered earlier this month during the local PBS station’s fund drive and no doubt will be aired again many times. (Check the station’s listings.)
“I’m Painting my Life” includes interviews with brothers Bev, who runs the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Broaddus (an attorney) as well as his 91-year-old mother Helen, who still drives and reads newspapers for the sight impaired on public radio.
The documentary, produced by Carol Jennings for Blue Ridge Public Television (BRPTV), also details Fitzpatrick’s ability to paint with both hands – he was forced to use his left hand after tearing a tendon that made it difficult to use his natural right hand for a while. A coming deadline for the Sidewalk show forced Fitzpatrick to that offhand; after a few weeks as the documentary points out it became more natural.
Those left hand works are more freestyle and perhaps more impressionistic than his normal right hand work. “It turned out very well,” said Fitzpatrick – who earned second place honors as he recalls at the show with his left hand art that year. “More gutsy,” pieces he said, “Some of the best work I’ve ever done. They’re like two different artists.”
As for the feature on him, “I hope people will see through this documentary what a passion it is to paint,” said Fitzpatrick, “artists are filled with so much passion. That’s what it’s all about. No one goes into this for the money.” Fitzpatrick finishes off that last statement with a chuckle, but he clearly has done okay for himself. “You go in to [art] because you love it so much.”
Artists take in the world they see around them and respond via the canvas, on paper, in clay or other media, according to Fitzpatrick. “They want to express their love for the world.” Jennings and her crew followed Fitzpatrick to film him sketching at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention; they were with him in the downtown Roanoke Market Square and when he went back to the Texas Tavern to sketch what he calls some of the area’s “great characters,” one finds only at that tiny eatery.
A new print of the Texas Tavern at night and another new print called Market Memories were also debuted at the BRPTV annual campaign. “Memories” is Fitzpatrick’s recollection of the Farmer’s Market area in downtown Roanoke circa 20 years ago, when the stall awnings were striped in bright colors and an assortment of interesting people manned those booths.
“It’s near and dear to my heart … it turns back the clock on a place we all know and love,” he said of the market area. “To me this film is not about me – it’s about art and the passion of art,” said Fitzpatrick, who hopes it inspires some to pick up a brush – maybe for the first time.
See blueridgepbs.org for more on Eric Fitzpatrick: I’m Painting my Life and future air dates.
By Gene Marrano
