The Roanoke

9x12

Oil on Linen

On Display as part of the
St. Mary's School Head of School Artist Series
Dec.14-Jan 30

The Roanoke Inn, aka The Roanoke,  overlooks the marshes that wade into Shallow Bag Bay on the East side of Roanoke Island in Downtown Manteo.  Directly in view from the front porch is the replica of the Old Marhes Lighthouse that originally sat on iron pylons in the Croatan Sound.

I guess one of the signs of a good artist is to know what to paint, and if it wasn't for John "Possum" Silver's (http://www.johnsilvergallery.com/silver.html) eye for a good subject, I wouldn't have even noticed this opportunity. Possum painted the whole Inn, and I only could muster out a corner of it, but that was enough  to get the low country feel of this old 19th Century inn (http://www.roanokeislandinn.com/).

All I really know about the Inn is that is the last landmark of the annual OBX marathon and only a tenth of a mile to the finish line. A couple of years ago Hosea Wilson talked me into running the road race with him. I remember he had a maticulous training program that called for irregular distances to run each day to build up to the thirteen mile monster.  I laughed and said if I can run four miles a day, surely I can run that in one day. That was a big mistake, but somehow I did it with not the best time in the world.  Hosea smoked me half way during the race, and by the time I crossed the Pirates Cove Bridge I was reaching deep down within to put one foot in front of the other. About to literally pass out, I remember other runners who had already finished were lined up in front of The Roanoke cheering the slow ones, like myself, on to the finish line. One yelled out to me, "Only a tenth of a mile to go!". At the time those were the best words I had heard in my life, yet that was the longest tenth of mile in my life too.