David S. Rose
This is a photograph of my studio in our apartment in Providence along with self-portraits that were painted in this room. It was the spare bedroom. I think I also started to to work on etchings at this time.
Though I don't think I ever painted in this studio, I did work on many etchings and watercolors. I also started to freelance children books and editorial illustrations...while working full time.
I started painting large watercolors in this studio while still working full time. We also started a Folk Art business later from this studio.
After graduating from art school with the realization that I had spent the last four years training for a job that there are no jobs for, I became a nightwatchman. My hours were 9pm - 6am five nights a week. It was at a boys prep school on the East Side of Providence near Brown University. My job was to walk around the building every hour to make sure everything was safe. It was a large three story building with many stairs to climb. But I was young and in good shape, so I saw the job as a form of exercise. It took me less than ten minutes to check the building so I had 50 minutes to do as I pleased. I once calculated that I climbed 2.6 million steps a year.
I spent my time wisely, reading almost every book I ever wanted to read, and best of all, I could paint and draw all night. The people were friendly, they liked me because I would stay awake all night and I got to do what wanted to do with no-one to bother me. It was the best job I ever had!
Watercolors
Folk Art
Life Drawings
These are some of my oil paintings created during
my years at art school
(1965-1969). They were painted at Swain School
of Design and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
I've found photos of most of the studios I've worked in through the years. At left is a photograph of me painting in my parents basement. This is from 1966 with the camera on a tripod.
The photo below is the space I worked in at The Skowhegan School of Painting in Maine during the summer of 1968.
I spent the beginning of my senior year sharing this loft off campus with one of the Swain teachers, Ron Kowalke, and later with Ken Anthony and Richard Maynard...I have good memories of this place.
I still remember the day I found that chair in a junk shop in New Bedford. I had that chair in every studio I had until a few years ago I put it in our courtyard and the weather destroyed it. I loved that chair. The mannequin is also from that time...I was upset when it was left behind on one of our moves.
I think these might be from a few years after Swain School, but I'm sure I painted landscapes and still lives while at school.
Here are a few self-portraits from my Swain School days. I still have that top hat!
This is a record of my life's work, filled with photos, artwork, memories and dreams.
I almost forgot to mention that while I was at school I was also a musician on the weekends. I was in a group called “The Plagues”. The group was very popular, we were the house band at the "Rabbit" in Taunton and we played throughout Eastern Massachusetts and beyond. In 1965 we recorded two songs at a Boston studio...they were “To Wander” and “Cherry Pie”.
During this time we also shared the stage with many music groups such as Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, The Turtles and other bands from that era. I never thought much of it...it was just a weekend job for me. It was something I had been doing since I was 13 or 14, all through high school and the first three years at art school.
Above are two of the paintings I hung at the senior show at Swain School of Design. There were other paintings off to the side but I can't find the slides.
I can't remember why I painted the scene above. I was going in too many directions at that time.
The Plagues
Before I played the bass guitar I was a Hawaiian Guitar player. Here are some videos of me playing.
The Nightwatchman
These paintings were all done in a two year period. I also taught myself how to watercolor and learned pen and ink drawing and scratchboard. After the first few years as a nightwatchman I developed an interest in children's books and editorial illustration. At the same time I started working on etchings. This was a time to learn and develop new skills.
These are photos of my studio in Berkley. It's on the third floor with northern skylights.
This was my studio in the north end of Fall River. The house was built around 1800 and had a lot of charm. An art school friend, Ken Anthony, put in the large windows from an old factory in Fall River. With the northern light it would had been a perfect place to paint if only I had the time.
I'm not sure when this series was created, but I think it was at this house. I called this series 'The Nightwatch' thinking of the many nights I was alone during my time as a nightwatchman.
While at this house I did a series of etchings of factories and other buildings in Fall River. Here are a few of the prints that I could find.
Click this box to view more artwork from this time period.
Click this box to view more of this series.
Illustrations
Music
Inspiration
Painting Studios
Below are other sites that show the many different things I've worked on in my life. Click boxes to open.
Photograph by Marilee W. Rose
I painted this while living at this apartment in Providence. It was hanging in that apartment and also in the first house we lived in, but it's missing at our new home. I've searched everywhere but still can't find it. This blurred image was from a bad slide...the only one I could find.
Below is one of the photos of Marilee that I used as reference.
The
Missing Painting
Editorial Illustrations
Book Publishing
I would work all night as a night watchman then take the train from Providence to New York and visit publishing houses. It was before the internet so I would have to call editors in New York to make sure I had enough appointments for the day. By the time I returned to Providence I had to go back to work. It wasn’t easy!
The first jobs I got in publishing were painting book jackets. I found these book jackets in an old portfolio that I hadn’t looked at for decades.
I’m impressed by the publishing houses that I had worked for.
This drawing of Ronald Reagan was the first political illustration that I did. I did this and other drawings while working as a night watchman.
I would mail copies of these to newspapers…that’s when I started freelancing for the opinion page of the Boston Globe. The two drawings below are a few examples of the work I did for the Globe.
A few years later I became syndicated and had my work in newspapers throughout the US and Canada. The illustration above is one of over a thousand I drew over the next decade. I’m not sure what newspaper this is…might be the LA Times.
A few years after that I started working on my first children's book. After finishing this book I found an agent in New York and did many more books. Click on the Teddy Bear's Scrapbook cover on the left to see more Children's Books and Illustrations that I've worked on.
The photo on the left was worked on in Photoshop about twenty years ago. I'm not sure when it was taken or where the slides are now. The still-life objects are things I've collected over the last 50 or 60 years.
Recently, I found the negatives of a series of photos using the same objects. The still-life photo to the right is one of them. Click on the photo to see the rest of the series.
Click on photo above to see more photos
Still-life Photographs
Click on the illustration above to see more Editorial Illustrations
Click on the book cover above to see more Children''s Books
Tarot Cards
Digital Art
The Graces
