LAKE COUNTY ? Ever since Ron Keas shook hands with John F. Kennedy in 1960 he”s been inspired to paint portraits.
“Now it is my life”s dream to paint the official White House portrait of President Obama,” he said.
“JFK inspired me to paint my first oil portrait, which was of him,” Keas said.
A print of the 2010 Black History Month poster created by Keas, hangs on the wall at the NAACP main office in Baltimore, MD.
Three of Keas” paintings of Obama were on the front page of the New York Times. Some of his original oil paintings of Obama were on display at the Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver held during the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
“I received a personal phone call from Jay Leno complimenting me on the paintings.” The national and international accolades are wonderful, he says, but Keas takes as much pride in the kudos he receives in Lake County. He was presented with a Stars of Lake County award for professional arts, also in 2008.
“I”m working to publicize Lake County with my photography Web site,” he said.
Additionally, just before Ted Kennedy died, Keas realized Kennedy was ill and he began a painting of him.
“Within hours of starting the painting, the news came out that he had passed away. I continued to paint as the memorials and funeral on TV were in the background. As the painting progressed, I posted the progress of the painting online and many of his admirers followed it,” Keas said.
He thought of Ted Kennedy as a kindred spirit, because he was an artist too.
“One of his paintings was of The Hyannis Port compound. So, my idea was to copy his painting as the background of my painting and show him at the helm of his sailboat, sailing away. The Cape Cod Life magazine in Hyannis Port is going to publish the painting in a special memorial edition this coming summer,” he said.
Keas was born in Salinas in 1943. As a child, he sketched and painted pictures, specializing in portraits of friends and family. He built his own darkroom by age 12 and took pictures of people and nature. His favorite books were about artists and inventors. He built crystal radios, telegraphs, telephones and experimented with optical devices.
He attended San Jose City College for two years, majoring in art and photography, but left college early to join the Navy.
He became a Naval photographer after completing the Naval School of Photography in Pensacola, Florida. His first assignment was in the Navy”s Mobile Photo Unit as a motion picture photographer and later on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hancock off the coast of Vietnam, where he worked as a photo lab technician.
Keas” first big break as an artist came in 1983, during the peak of popularity of Cabbage Patch Dolls. He painted oil portraits of the dolls. The Salinas news aired a television news story about the Cabbage Patch Doll paintings and the story made it to network news on the NBC Today show.
In 1987 the Pope visited Carmel. Keas” oil paintings of the Pope at Mission Carmel appeared on network television and in newspapers and magazines around the World.
For 20 years Keas” favorite art subject was Marilyn Monroe. One of the many Marilyn paintings is featured in the “Marilyn in Art” coffee table book by Roger Taylor. It also appears on the back cover. Keas” paintings of Princess Diana are featured in a similar book titled “Diana in Art.”
Keas lives with his wife Donna in Lake County. He divides his time between photographing nature around Clear Lake and doing oil paintings. Keas” photography is featured on the covers and inside many or the Lake County magazines. He created a tourism slide show from his Lake County photography for the Lake County Visitor”s Center.
Today Keas concentrates his creativity on a collection of oil paintings of Barack Obama. These paintings can be viewed on the Web site at www.keasart.com or www.3dviewmax.com. For more information call 274-8786.
Mandy Feder can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or call directly 26305636 ext. 32.
