Pre-Owned Limited Edition Print from the Prairie Heritage Collection issued by The Citizens National Bank of Decatur, Illinois in April 1974. This is print #14 out of 300 total prints made. Hand-signed and numbered below the printed signature.
Approx. image size: 30″ x 22.” Overall framed dimension is 36″ x 28″.
From the original press release:
A collection of 15 paintings of mid-American scenes, commissioned by the Citizens National Bank, has been completed and will be displayed later this month, according to Robert B. King, vice president of the bank.
The collection, entitled “Prairie Heritage,” is the work of artist Rob O’Dell. The works… represent the remnants of the Midwest’s past, and are based on scenes from the Illinois-Indiana area, O’Dell said. They range from wooded scenes, abandoned stories and schoolhouses to a solitary plow in the middle of prairie grass.
O’Dell has said that he would like to serve as “a recorder of our civilization,” noting that many of the scenes he has painted are no longer in existence.
He describes himself as a realist, but he is not above using unconventional methods to obtain the controlled effects he desires.
O’Dell rarely uses a brush, other than for fine details, he said. Instead, he utilizes a variety of materials, including the edge of a piece of cardboard, a toothbrush, salt and instant rice. To attain the rusty texture of a barrel in one work, he used his own thumbprint.
The bank has had showings of works by local artists on a monthly basis for the last seven years, King said, but this is the first time it has ever commissioned a series of works.
“We thought if we could commission him to do a collection, so he could have a free hand in his painting, it would help him and also give the bank a permanent collection,” King explained.
Rob O’Dell is a native of Decatur, Illinois. He was born in 1938. He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago for three years and worked for three more years as a layout artist before settling on a farm in Ladoga, Indiana, where he became a full-time professional artist six years ago, He has won over twenty awards at shows in the Mid-We st in the pa 5t six: Years and has had one-man shows at universities, galleries and at the Citizens National Bank of Decatur.
CRITIC COMMENTS:
“Artists like O’Dell are to be treasured in today’s changing world. He does in paintings what a poet like Robert Frost did in words. He preserves not just the images, but the spirit of the land that makes Americans unique and strong. There is peace and beauty in all he paints.”
“O’Dell sees the beauty of the commonplace. He paints brown weeds against the snow. He shows a rural grocery store plastered with decaying signs. He has looked about him, he has remembered and he has recorded. He has put it down with great beauty. Beauty is an old- fashioned word now, but it aptly applies to the artistry of Rob O’Dell.”
“O’Dell has been compared before with Wyeth, and perhaps comparisons have no value. O’Dell just stands alone. But he stands high. When he puts a watercolor brush to paper, it speaks aloud. You see what the artist means you to see. We can find the love of subject, the sense of timing and space and mainly the reaction to something beautiful which might have been missed had the painter not told us about it.”
