Illustrator shows art, books on Arkansas at art festival
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008
ROGERS — Visitors to this year’s Pinnacle Hills Art Festival can look forward to the region’s finest art, food, crafts, live entertainment and even a little bit of Mississippi.
Mississippi artist and illustrator Rick Anderson will attend the art festival in hopes of selling a few of his paintings, inspired by his travels all over the country, including those in Arkansas, which are the focus of two children’s books Anderson illustrated.
The books, “ N is for Natural State: An Arkansas Alphabet, ” and “ Natural Numbers, ” are designed to help tots memorize the alphabet and learn to count, all while digging up new and interesting facts about the state.
The cover for “ Natural Numbers” depicts a dinosaur who is picking up different-colored numbers.
“ As children walk along, they tend to pick things up off the ground, so the dinosaur is picking up rocks just like a child would. Every rock (the colored numbers ) has a different color for the different minerals found in the state of Arkansas. The number three is turquoise, the number zero is a diamond, ” Anderson said.
“ Supposedly we have found diamonds in Arkansas. I have been twice (to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro ), but I have not found one yet, ” Anderson joked.
Even the dinosaur on the cover of “ Natural Numbers” is one whose fossil has been unearthed in the state.
For the children’s book, Anderson and his wife, Merrie, visited all the areas of the state the book mentions. He watched fiddlers perform on a porch in Mountain View. Anderson tasted Bradley County’s pink tomatoes, a delicacy that should be considered the official state fruit, Anderson said.
The only thing depicted on the pages of the book that Anderson did not personally experience is the viewing of an ivory-billed woodpecker.
“ I had to paint it totally on research. Of course, if I had actually seen one of those (the rare woodpeckers ), I would be famous, ” Anderson said, laughing.
For Anderson to illustrate a book, traveling to the area the book is about is absolutely mandatory.
“ I owe it to the readers to do the research, to say I went there. I bought those tomatoes, and that way when I go to talk at schools, I can tell the children that it is all real and that I did it, ” Anderson said.
Anderson published his first book, “ M is for Magnolia: A Mississippi Alphabet, ” in 2003 at the age of 55 after he retired from teaching art for 25 years, so it is fairly safe to say that the illustrator knows a thing or two about reaching out to children.
“ I taught from pre-kindergarten through graduate painting classes. Having been in the classroom, and since I have worked with children, I know how to deal with children. I know how to capture their attention and keep them interested, ” Anderson said.
To keep kids interested in “ Natural Numbers, ” Anderson painted a hidden dinosaur in each of the book’s paintings to give them a chance for a tiny treasure hunt with the turn of each page.
Anderson’s favorite part of illustrating a new book, which takes him roughly six months to complete, not counting travel time, is “ all of it, ” he said without hesitation.
“ There is not one thing I like best. Doing the research is a lot of fun because it gives you a reason to go to places that you might not ever go to. Deciding what you want the painting to look like is fun, ” Anderson said.
In addition to presenting and selling at the Pinnacle Hills Art Festival Sept. 5-7, Anderson plans on stopping by local bookstores to sign copies of “ Natural Numbers, ” time permitting.
For more on Anderson’s art and books, visit www. rickandersonart. com.
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