If you mention the name Bob Andrea in Spooner, you’d get several responses.
“Yea, Bobby Andrea, I went to school with him.” Or some would say, wasn’t he the Chief of Police or something? Some would even say, “Isn’t he the guy who painted pictures in his spare time, you know, the guy that’s married to a nurse?”
Since Bobby grew up in Spooner and has spent the majority of his life in the same town, you probably have at least heard of him or maybe know him.
What you might not know is that by the age of six his teacher questioned whether he really did draw a character out of a comic book freehand and didn’t put his paper over the image and simply traced it. Six years old, that’s what, first, second grade?
This Friday's 'Around Town' by Diane Dryden is brought to you in part by ICAA
The following year when he turned seven, he saw one of those “Draw Me” sketches, the one of a person’s profile that would appear on matchbook covers or in magazines with the challenge being to draw the figure and send it in which he did.
When representatives of the contest contacted his mother asking to interview her son, she explained that he was only seven years old and was not about to leave grade school to attend their art institute but took her out for lunch anyway.
“I come from an artistic family,” he says. “My mom and several of my uncles were very artistic, and my mom encouraged my artistic side, but I was more interested in sports and anything else but art. Out of my five brothers and sisters, I seemed to be the one who was most artistic and I really just did it for fun.”
In 1981, after a time in college pursuing a degree in Art, Bob knew teaching wasn’t going to be a good fit for him, so he crossed the aisle and went into law enforcement as a part-time cop for Spooner.
He always had a respect for those in law enforcement and the career choice seemed to fit because he worked his way through the ranks to become Spooner’s Chief of Police, keeping his art more of a hobby than a serious endeavor.
Bob retired in 2013 from law enforcement after 32 years with an additional 20 years serving in the Wisconsin Army National Guard and got serious about something he once played around with, his art, duck stamps to be specific.
Duck stamps are actual stamps that you get in return for buying a permit to hunt ducks in various states and the competition is fierce to have the art that you painted and submitted to be chosen for the stamp.
This led him into wildlife art and just last year out of many professional duck stamps submitted, he was the one that was chosen by the state of Oregon for first place. The same year he won in Wisconsin with his turkey stamp and was the third runner-up with his Wisconsin duck stamp entry. He also placed in the top thirty with his entry for the Federal Duck Stamp competition.
He and his wife Jill talked about his career and they both agreed it was time to take it to the next step- publication and licensing.
Jill was the go-to person that handled all the technical work and she found Hadley House in Minneapolis that boasted they had a thirty-year history of exclusively presenting the best artists in North America. They went on to say they provided only fine quality reproductions to collectors, galleries, retailers and corporate customers around the world.
Jill contacted Hadley House. Once they reviewed Bob's artwork, the President from Hadley House contacted him and asked if he would like to be published. At first, a select number of his favorite nostalgia paintings reminiscent of Norman Rockwell and Phillip R. Goodwin were professionally scanned in Duluth by CPL Imaging and sent in, covered in lots of prayers.
Hadley House sent them out to their clients and SunsOut, Inc, a company that makes puzzles, licensed their favorite three:
So far, it’s mostly family that has heard the news of his new success because the event has been so recent, but now that it’s out, the answer to your next question is yes, he does do a limited amount of commission work.
Many of Bob's painting tell a story. Take for instance the one he did of the gas station. First, that little kid in the foreground is meant to be his father, Bill, who is holding the string of huge bass. This really happened to his father when he was a kid and to honor him further check out the sign on the left side of the picture, “Wild Bill”. The stone building still stands on Spooner’s River Street today and was originally called the Indianhead Service Station. Bob used his son Jared as a model for the tourist who’s bragging about his tiny catch.
Jared and other family members appear in several of his pictures. Bobby set up a tent in his yard and took lots of photos of the guys and the tent. He then filled in the background and came up with a brand-new painting.
One picture he painted was to honor his wife and her family who came from Iowa. You can see it in the license plate and the name Darby and Hardie on the road signs. The flour sign on the barn was left in because these barn signs appeared across rural areas; the sign painters often swapping permission to paint their sign on the building for advertisement along with painting the farmer’s barn.
“Most of my paintings come from my own memories or stories that have been passed down over time. My hope is when people look at my images that it brings a sense of warmth and joy. God’s creation really speaks to me and I am humbled that He gave me the gift of art in order to bring Him glory.”
Hadley House is a great Publishing Company to work for. I have signed a year contract with them and if things go well, I will continue. They seem to be a great fit for my style of artwork. You can see and purchase many of Bob’s images at hadleyhouse.com or his original works of art at jackpinecreations.com
The next time you buy a puzzle or see a picture somewhere that looks like this one, check the signature at the bottom , if it says Bob Andrea, John 3:16 you’ll be able to say, didn’t I read about him somewhere and isn’t he married to a nurse?
Last Update: Jul 01, 2017 1:34 pm CDT
