Artist Statement

Artist Statement

I graduated from Texas Tech in December, 1973, with a BFA in studio painting.  I thought at that time the world was waiting for me.  I never stopped painting, drawing, or growing after graduation, but when my wife, Betsy, and I moved to Staples, Texas and bought the General Store, things started to happen.  Lamartine, Aries, was to Van Gogh what Staples is to me.

Staples is a very small forgotten village on the San Marcos River.  There are unspoiled fields where wheat, corn, and maize are grown, and live oaks and pecan trees have flourished since long before the arrival of the white man.  In the spring the wild flowers have no end. The sky changes with every breath.  The trees speak of color unknown to a painter’s pallet, and when the wind touches them, magic.

Nature is an organized confusion that comes together with color.  To be able to walk alone in these fields, to watch the approaching storms, to hear the movement of the river, and to feel the wind is nothing less than perfection.  I now paint everyday and take photographs by the hundreds.  I have found my garden.

John A. Roof

Monday, April 07, 2008

Personal Statement         

John A. Roof

The soul of man is good, evil or confused.    I have looked hard in recent years at nature’s soul and see only good and giving.  I have been told by others, after looking at my art work, that I am the artist of Nature’s Soul.  I can sit for hours on the San Marcos river watching the wind in the trees, the colors changing with the sun and clouds, and listen to the water flow over the rocks offering a drink to nature’s thirst..  I watch the winter wheat grow from a seed to the lush carpet of green waving its beckoning call to those who understand, then with time watch as it becomes nature’s gold treasure.  Nature asks for little and gives considerable to the human condition.