The South Shore News & Tribune
Servicemen Light Up His Canvases
Tampa Tribune photo by Jim Reed
Artist Fred Rothenbush sits in front of one of his current paintings. He is doing a series on flowers.
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Published: February 20, 2008
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RUSKIN - Fred Rothenbush sat at the easel in his home in Ruskin one recent morning, applying finishing touches to a large canvas depicting a military scene.
Amid the gray and adobe-hued rocks of a steep cliff, a helicopter has landed. It has emptied its cargo, camouflage-clad soldiers who dart about with guns in hand. Other helicopters hover overhead against a backdrop of snow-covered craggy mountains.
Rothenbush, a fifth-generation artist and longtime Ruskin resident, is giving a new twist to one of his favorite themes - people at the forefront of our personal safety. He has rendered lifelike on canvas the world of police officers and fire fighters and has recently turned to American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"It fascinates me how we are doing all this directly from the war zone," he said of the soldiers' ability to e-mail him photos of their daily lives.
"It's amazing what they have now that they didn't have when I was in," said Rothenbush, who served in Korea during the Vietnam War.
The 24-by-36-inch canvas before him that morning was commissioned by the 82nd Aviation Combat Brigade headquartered in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Rothenbush has had other commissioned works from Fort Bragg, where his son Doug, who teaches at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was once stationed.
"He took Fred to a gallery there during a visit and then Fred did a one-man show," said Rothenbush's wife, Polly.
That exhibit led to further commissions.
More paintings based on combat in Afghanistan are in the works.
Rothenbush took out a photo he recently received, which features a line of soldiers walking single file down a muddy path. The path is lined on one side by a low wall constructed of compacted mud.
Edifices in the small city of Musah Quelah in southern Afghanistan rear up at the end of the path. The city was the sight of a bloody battle that raged for three days, Rothenbush said.
"It's more than telling a story," he said of this and his other military paintings. "It represents these guys at their best and what they do for us."
Another photo awaiting a canvas and palette shows a mountain range in Musah Quelah with a single tower rising from its peak.
"That was the communication system for the entire Taliban," he said. "When the soldiers took over that city and the tower, they let an Afghan soldier be the one to climb the tower."
Rothenbush expressed pride in that gesture. "They are fighting not just for us," he said of the American soldiers, "but to free the people of Afghanistan."
One painting features Steven Reich, who played baseball for West Point in the '80s and then for a brief time in the Baltimore Orioles farm system. He later served as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. Reich, 34, was shot down following a rescue mission in 2005.
The West Point baseball team commissioned Rothenbush to paint Reich.
On a 30-by-40-inch canvas, the artist featured the athlete-soldier in three poses, the center one showing him in his West Point baseball uniform winding up for a pitch. In the upper right, Reich is dressed in camouflage; in the lower left, he holds the American flag while taking part in the World University Games.
Rothenbush, who also is known for his portraits and paintings of Florida wildlife, said the key to all of his work, whether of combat soldiers or egrets on the wing, is light.
"When I paint I'm not painting color," he said. "I'm painting light."
He added, "It's the light on the subject that makes the painting."
He said that to paint with light is to paint emotionally. To do so means Rothenbush turns to his spiritual side.
He often renders the light of God symbolically in his depictions of those who protect society. On one canvas, rays of light flash down on a police vehicle patrolling the street. On another, a large gentle hand hovers over a brightly colored pile of a fire fighter's clothing, including helmet, suspenders, jacket and slacks. A mystical light seems to imbue the dusty hills of Afghanistan as well.
That same light appears in paintings of nature, whether on the wings of birds, the setting sun, the reflection on the water, or the opening petals of a flower.
Of late, Rothenbush is given to painting flowers.
On a 30-by-40-inch canvas in progress, a giant, white orchid lurches off a dark background, with shades of gold and red on the inner column jutting forward. The large white petals appear translucent.
"It's light coming in from behind," he said. "That kind of light makes it glow."
Rothenbush said he never knows what will interest him on any given day and is open to possibilities, but the military, for now, has the upper hand on his talent.
"When the military asks for something I can never tell them no," he said.
GET A CLOSER LOOK
• Fred Rothenbush will have an exhibit of original military paintings and prints, along with some limited-edition prints of other subjects, at a reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m. May 15 at the South Shore Gallery, 447 Apollo Beach Blvd., Apollo Beach. Prints will be available for $50, with half of the proceeds going to the Military Officers' Benevolent Corp. For information on the exhibit, call (813) 645-0483 or visit www.southshore gallery.com.
• For information on Rothenbush, visit www.fred rothenbush.com.
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