Back to New Bern September 15, 2012

That morning

Late afternoon, photo by Bernie Rosage

At the waterfront, oil painting by Brenda Behr

It’s unfortunate I do not have a photo of either of the two paintings Rob did that beautiful day in New Bern, NC. It was a two-painting day for each of us. We must have bumped into fellow plein air artist buddy Bernie Rosage, as he took a slug of paintings of Rob and I on the waterfront. A little over a week ago, I visited Carolina Creations Fine Art and Craft Gallery in this lovely two-river town, and mistook my painting (below) for the one Rob had done that morning.

Moored, 9x12" oil painting by Brenda Behr

August 11, 2012

Alyson’s Drive by Robert Rigsby, oil on linen

Crepe Myrtle in August by Brenda Behr, 8x16" oil

I always connect Crepe Myrtles in bloom with the month of July, but these paintings, we did the following month. It was Rob’s idea to paint here that hot August day. Rob knew this long driveway to be at the home of the people who own Handy Mart, an Eastern NC chain of gas and convenient stores. Rob showed loyalty to them by always buying his gas there. I hope at some time they thanked him by buying one of his paintings.

Summer begins 2012

Painting sunflowers in Falling Creek, NC

Sunflowers near Kinston by Robert Rigsby, 9x12" oil on linen

The above will always be one of my favorite photos of Rob and me. Summer solstice had just passed a week before and we had many promising days of painting ahead of us. We must have figured out by now that we would be sharing many plein air painting excursions. This location in Falling Creek, NC is just west of Kinston on Hwy 70. I know we returned to the same location a year or so later, but the sunflowers were never as glorious as they had been on this June day in 2012. We both did two paintings that day. Set up on the back of Rob’s pickup truck allowed us a deeper view of the field. Rob was always generous about sharing his large market umbrella.

Another Sunflower by Robert Rigsby, oil on linen

Good Morning by Brenda Behr, 8x16" oil on panel

Strength in Numbers by Brenda Behr, 9x12" oil on panel

Exploring New Bern, NC

On the River in New Bern by Robert Rigsby, oil on linen

Skiffs by Brenda Behr, 8x10" oil on panel

Also in May of 2012,  Rob and I found our way to New Bern, North Carolina, the city where Governor Tyron, the last of the British governors, was living at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Part of the historic city’s big attractions are its two rivers, so we first found our way to the riverfront. There, I painted the skiffs you see here, and Rob painted a parked bicycle, backdropped by a docked sailboat. It would be several years before I learned that back, close to his college years, Rob had made a cross-country bicycle trip, surviving mostly on peanut butter sandwiches.

Backyard in New Bern, oil on linen

We squeezed in time for afternoon paintings. I cannot remember our time restraint that beautiful day in May, just that we had limited time.

Street with Blue Shadows, 6x8" oil on panel

May 2012

Rob painting the hives

Road to the Beehives by Brenda Behr, 11x14" oil on panel

Red-roofed barn by Brenda Behr, oil on panel

In the spring of 2012 there was a gap in the painting Rob and I did together. We hadn’t figured out yet that we would soon be painting together on a weekly basis. That May, I don’t know who suggested to whom we head up Highway 13. I have a hunch having spotted beehives on a trip to Greenville, and knowing Rob’s wife and daughter had taken up beekeeping, I may have suggested we pack our easels and head for the hives. The fact that Kirby Rigsby, DVM, Rob’s wife, is passionate about her beekeeping hobby probably explains why Rob’s painting is not to available to be shared here. I received most only images of paintings he was interested in selling.

The barn painting was done at a second stop on Hwy 13 that day, just a stone’s throw down the highway from the beehives.

Sertoma Art Center

Drawing of his daughter by Robert Rigsby

Morgan in her prom dress by Brenda Behr, 8x10" oil on panel

Backtracking, in February 2012, Rob introduced me to another figure study group, this one at Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh. The models were clothed and emphasis was on portraiture. I have only a couple of paintings from these sessions we attended, and only one from another figure study session we joined that fall with Waverly Artists Group. I hate it that I don’t have more of Rob’s figure studies to share. The drawing he did of his daughter Morgan was probably from a session elsewhere, but she did pose for us that February.
It was probably my first time ever to meet Rob’s daughter. She was so good to join us on our trip to Raleigh and pose for us. Beaded with sequins, it may have been a prom dress she wore that day. After the session, we stopped at Whole Foods on Wade Avenue where she was allowed her own shopping cart. Dad met her at checkout with his credit card.

One gazebo, two interpretations

Gazebo by Robert Rigsby, oil on linen

Sun-streaked afternoon at the Gazebo by Brenda Behr 12x9" oil on panel

These paintings Robert and I did on March 10 just after our long pose study with model Christina (posted earlier). Our first trip to Raulston Arboretum had been a week earlier, when the sun kept itself hidden. I found the painting I did on that sunless day, but not Rob’s. He had not painted the gazebo, but as I remember,  opted instead to make a flowering camellia bush his center of interest. Rob was attracted to color, so this time of year camellias, tulip trees and Eastern Redbud trees are a frequent reminder of our paint outs.

Shared studio space beginning March 2012

Rob takes a photo of Kate in our shared studio

Une jeune fille by Brenda Behr, 10x8" oil on panel

Rob  had a free standing gallery/studio at Goldsboro’s Village Green which he operated until early 2012. At the beginning of March that year, he had moved his studio downtown into the Arts Council of Wayne County where we jointly shared a studio. Below is the announcement I made of that studio in my Behr Path newsletter, “Behr Path 108 — Meet My New Painting Buddy”, dated February 26, 2012.

Please join me next Friday, March 2, 5-8pm in downtown Goldsboro for the premier First Friday of the Arts Council of Wayne County. You’ll find me in a studio on the second floor.

Big News! I’ll soon be sharing studio space (mentioned above) with another artist at the recently relocated Arts Council in downtown Goldsboro. What evolved from my request to have a place one day a week in which to paint portraits is now a shared space with vetenarian-turned artist Robert Rigsby.

My primary focus will continue to be plein air painting. So, if you want to visit me in Goldsboro, do call first and I’ll arrange to meet you either en plein air or in my studio. Since Robert and I are both primarily plein air painters, we’ll be showing at the studio mostly By Appointment.

In February 2012 our painting journey began

Yates Mill by Robert Rigsby, oil on linen

Creek in Winter by Brenda Behr, 10x8" oil on panel

I am tickled. I found a whole slug of Rob’s paintings on my computer. I apologize that I do not know the sizes, or for sure, the titles of all of his works. I do know that for most of the time we painted together, Rob was painting on stretched linen.

It did not take much time for Rob and I to figure out that it would be a lot more fun and a lot more economic to car pool on our trips to the long-pose figure study sessions at Artspace, and that we could tack on an afternoon plein air excursion to these outings. Thus, our trips to Raleigh continued. In late February we visited Yates Mill just off Lake Wheeler Road south of Raleigh. I painted the creek; Rob painted the Mill. Sometimes we painted the same view; sometimes, not. Our plein air paintings were about painting, not about chatting; we had time for plenty of that during our commutes.

Nude figure study

Christina’s First Pose, 16x12" oil on linen

Over the next several years, Robert and I would continue to bump into one another. Once at an art market that proved not-so-lucrative; another time, perusing art supplies at the local Michael’s; again, when we were given simultaneous, but separate, gallery shows at the Arts Council of Wayne County.

You will think I am joking here, but when in early 2012 I bumped into Robert at an Artspace long-pose figure session in Raleigh, I realized how very serious he was about his painting. Figure study sessions is not where the lecherous go to peep at naked ladies, or necessarily where one learns to draw, but where committed artists go to hone their drawing and painting skills.

I do not have one of Robert’s nudes to share, but I will say this figure later became one of Robert’s nudes because he bought the painting from me. As I was painting the model and wanted sincerely to get Robert’s input, it was not so much a compliment to me why he responded, “Perfect.”

Meeting Robert, the Veterinarian

Most of my memories of Rob Rigsby will include his paintings, but first the story of how we met in 2007.

He owned his own practice at Goldsboro Veterinary Hospital which I had been told was the only veterinary practice in Wayne County that would treat exotic animals. My “exotic” animal was a lop-eared bunny named Magic that I loved with all my heart. I had brought Magic with me on my flight home from Minneapolis after having left North Carolina for thirty-seven years.

“My mother just died, and I can’t handle anymore loss right now. I need to buy some time,” were perhaps the first words out of my mouth when I first met Dr. Rigsby. My sweet bunny Magic was sick and after almost nine years with me, was preparing to die. I cry now when I think of it. And so, Robert helped me keep Magic alive until I was ready to let him go. He is the vet who helped facilitate the process of my letting go.

Dr. Robert C. Rigsby, Jr. 

July 1956 - February 2018