Local Artist unveils stories from his sketchbook
Roger Klein is one of the elder statesmen of the Prince George industrial sector. As the R in R.F. Klein & Sons Ltd., he was a mainstay of civil construction in the Prince George area since 1965. It might surprise even his closest friends to know Klein has an artistic side. He never kept it a secret, but he didn’t advertise his skills and was quite surprised when the Community Arts Council approached him about having his own solo art show at the Studio 2880 Feature Gallery. It made him blush, “I was quite shocked to tell you the truth,” but he said yes.
On Thursday he will open his debut exhibition of charcoal drawings. It is entitled Stories From My Sketchbook.
“It’s something to do in my spare time,” he said humbly. “It was habit-forming.”
But it started forming in early childhood. His grandfather, Edgar Colter, was a community mainstay in the farming village of Grindrod, not far from Salmon Arm.
The family ranch was on the Grandview Bench area and Colter would host an annual event at which he would arrange a variety of artists to show off their wares and skills. Young Klein watched this and was impressed by the magic these creators could conjure with their artisan hands.
“I got that upbringing from him, and he was an artist himself. I still have some of his paintings at home,” Klein said.
He didn’t take any formal lessons, but over the years Klein dabbled in oil painting, watercolours, pastels, painting on velvet, but the simple black and white of charcoal on white paper gave him the greatest satisfaction of all. (He also loves to make jovial jigsaw figures out of plywood and carve wooden blocks with a chainsaw, but that’s another story.)
The drawings are not the sort of highbrow abstracts or fine realism you’d find at the Louvre or the Tate. They depict barbed wire fences and wagon wheels.
They sketch out rough lines showing cream cans and step ladders. It’s the same sort of feel you’d get from a political cartoon or the Western illustrations of Ace Reid. But these are more than scribbles on paper.
There is nuance and detail tucked within the simplicity.
“I go with what hits my mind. I don’t try to stick to a theme. I’ll do back alley scenes of garbage (impressions from his Vancouver days, he said), I’ll do Mexican designs (from trips to Mexico), I’ll do sailboats, I like ranch scenes. I just start doodlin’ and see what comes out.”
He’s been doing that for decades. When he first joined the workforce as a youth, it was working for the Bank of Montreal. He couldn’t afford paper to draw on, but the bank had a large supply of green paper ink blotters in the storage closet. He would make numerous trips to that closet to feed his illustration habit.
He repaid the banking industry, though. RBC’s corporate offices in Prince George have some of Klein’s work on their walls, as do some of the city’s doctor’s offices and at the Central B.C. Railway and Forestry Museum, one of his favourite local cultural facilities.
He came into more public view last year when he was selected to be one of the artists in the Prince George Citizen’s 100th anniversary art project in partnership with the Community Arts Council (CAC).
He was the only one of the 26 chosen artists to depict his letter without actually incorporating its shape into the image. His letter was P. He drew a dog lifting its leg on a fire hydrant and served notice of his sense of humour.
“It was expressive and irreverent,” said Lisa Redpath, the CAC’s program manager, grinning. “When we look for artists to feature in our gallery, w are always looking for something unique and original. His work is charming, interesting, he shows off that sly wit sometimes, it isn’t politically correct but it’s fun. It’s quirky but it’s well done. Each and every one of his images is a story, there is always a silent narrative. I couldn’t stop thinking about them, so that was a signal to me that people would enjoy this show.”
Klein will be at Studio 2880 (located at 2880 15th Ave.) on Thursday from 2-7 p.m. He will be drawing in public view so anyone can watch and ask questions, then refreshments will be served starting at 5 p.m. It is free to attend and all ages are welcome.