Note Type
Antony Hayton, Exhibit DirectorNote
Rodney Demps (1953-2020)
Backwater Sunset Circa early 2000s
Oil On Masonite
Image size 12" X 24"
Rodney Demps started young as an artist, taking painting classes in the fifth grade. He attended Lincoln Park Academy, where his art teacher, Zanobia Jefferson, cultivated his interest in painting. Through her, he met Bean Backus and Alfred Hair. At Backus' studio, Demps received his first art supplies and painting tips by watching Backus work. Rodney grew close with Alfred and his wife as a teen. Doretha Hair would pick him up from school and take him to their house, where Alfred would show him how to make frames and paint skies. After Rodney painted a series of skies, Alfred would follow up by depicting the landscape. Rodney soon started creating his own landscapes. After Alfred Hair was killed he started painting with Sam Newton. However, Demps stopped painting during the 1980-2000 period, during which he taught physical education for 24 years. He began painting again when his interest in the Highwaymen returned, and he developed a style dissimilar from others in the group.
A quickly brushed orange sky burns intensely behind tall palms and dense shoreline greenery as hyacinth-filled wetlands stretch toward us. Alfred Hair's speed painting influence on Demps' becomes evident in this confidently fashioned work. Quick brush strokes with an almost surreal feel echo more of his years with Alfred Hair. Still, Demps made that influence his own as he fashioned intangible and imaginatively ethereal works, inviting the viewer to finish the details of his colorful, sublime whimsy.