• David Tewes •
• Originally published July 12, 2008 at 4:13 p.m., updated July 12, 2008 at 4:13 p.m.

John Dearman is 59, but he vividly remembers the day in junior high when he colored a mountain red.

“Everybody in class was laughing,” he said. “I didn’t know what they were laughing about. It looked perfect to me.”

It was at that point it became all too clear to a young Dearman that being colorblind was a problem. Red can appear as green or green can appear as red or brown.

That’s something that might ordinarily discourage any other budding artist, much less one with Dearman’s passion for outdoor sporting scenes.

But not Dearman.

“I’m pretty hardheaded when I put my mind to something,” said Dearman, who moved to Victoria from Rock Springs about four years ago.

Overcoming the colorblindness with help from his wife, Sharon, is one thing. But since that junior high incident, he’s developed an eye disease that causes the retina to detach and a tremor in his left hand that’s a nuisance.

“I’ve lost most of my vision in my left eye,” Dearman said. “I’ve still got central vision, but I don’t have a lens in it now.”

He’s had seven surgeries on the eye and he fears having more work could result in a career-ending infection.

But he just shrugs off the ailments that others might allow to become a roadblock to their passion.

“I figure if that’s the least thing that happens to me before I die, that’s pretty good.” he said. “I’ve adjusted to that and actually I think my work is better than it has ever been now.”

And that’s more than just his opinion.

Jack Burrows, owner of Arts Etc. in Victoria, said his customers agree that Dearman’s art is something to be cherished.

“I have collectors that collect his stuff every time a new product comes out,” Burrows said.

Dearman’s work typically features such sporting events as fishing along the Texas Coast, which Burrows said are accurate reproductions of the real thing.

Burrows began selling Dearman’s work 17 or 18 years ago, long before he even met the artist.

“I just liked his work and so did the public,” he said. “All the customers went crazy for it.”

Dearman has done work for such celebrities as Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and sports announcer Milo Hamilton, who had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

But the highlight of his 25-year career as an artist was the painting he did of then Texas Gov. George W. Bush and dad George H.W. Bush fishing on a private lake near Athens, Texas.

He spent about three hours in a boat with Secret Service agents while he shot 400 pictures of the two angling. Dearman said that’s more photos than he typically needs to create a painting.

“But that’s not the kind of deal you can repeat really easily,” he said.

The painting hasn’t just been stored away in some closet, White House spokesman Blair Jones said.

“The painting is on display at the Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, which is the president’s ranch,” he said. “To quote Mrs. Bush, she believes the painting is ‘quite lovely.’”

Dearman, a native of Pasadena, Texas, spent his early years earning a living as a draftsman for a printing company. One day he ventured into a cafe in Cleveland, Texas, where he saw an artist’s work that spurred his lifelong interest in painting.

“I told my wife I thought I could do that,” said Dearman, who was 32 at the time. “I went and bought some water colors and paper and just started out painting.”

It wasn’t as easy as he thought, but Dearman found that with each painting his work improved. That fired him up and he gave up his job as a draftsman and went into painting full time.

“After I quit my job, the first year I worked I only took one day off the whole year and I really enjoyed it,” he said. “Those were long days, too. I’d get up at 9 o’clock in the morning and paint until 2 the next morning.”

He made about $19,000 that first year, which was a cut in pay from his draftsman’s job.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he said. “It wasn’t that great, but I wasn’t doing anything but painting.”

Today he only paints eight or 10 days a month out of a bedroom converted into a cramped 10-by-15 studio at his home. But it’s got everything he needs – water color pallets for mixing the colors, a table, an easel, a stool and a TV set.

A north facing window provides a soft source of lighting.

“For an artist’s studio, this would be pretty much a disappointment to people, I guess,” Dearman said. “At one time I had about a 1,500-square-foot studio, and I worked in an area about like this and had junk everywhere else.”

Although he works fewer hours these days, Dearman’s reputation has allowed him to charge more for his art. His prices for water color paintings range from about $4,750 to about $10,000 or more.

“It’s really surprising how many people can afford that – bankers, lawyers, oilmen, especially oilmen and the president of the United States.”

While Dearman has bypassed the roadblocks along life’s highway, he wonders what life would be like without them.

“Quite often I think about the what if,” he said. “If I wasn’t colorblind, what could I be doing. That’s probably the most frustrating thing – that my work could be so much better.”

David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •