He's happiest when he's by the ocean, either visiting the south Pacific paradise of Palau or watching the otters play outside his own oceanfront home in Sechelt. The artist Rogest has made it his career to render sea creatures: porpoises, octopi, sea horses, rays and exotic fish that swim among the environmentally fragile coral reefs, in his unique style of painting that he calls dotillism. It's a play on the artistic term pointillism: creating images by the use of small dots. Rogest's dots look almost button size giving an interesting mosaic effect to his work.
But the story doesn't stop with the paintings. Rogest retains reproduction rights and uses the images for calendars, tee shirts, colouring books - you name it. The images are accompanied by factual info on the type of critter in the picture. For example, an art card depicting an orca describes how it lives and what it eats. A colouring book also becomes a learning experience for children with fun facts on every page.
A portion of the proceeds of these items goes to help environmental causes such as Shark Savers. Sharks are not popular with humans for good reason, but they are essential to an ocean's ecology and they are being hunted to extinction for their tasty fins. Sometimes Rogest adds a thought-provoking message to his work, "Extinction Lasts Forever."
Education is vital, especially among the next generation of ocean stewards. He's worked with kids at the Vancouver Aquarium, in libraries, hospitals and a series of kids' sea camps. Art gives a self-esteem boost. He should know. Born in Canada, Rogest grew up in England and was a pudgy child with the nickname of Pudding who hated art class at first.
"Now my whole life revolves around it," he said. Even the artist's name, Rogest, comes from a trick he uses in children's workshops. The kids take the first two letters of their names, combine them, and yell out their new pirate names. Rogest's real name is Ron George Steven, an energetic man who entered the hospitality industry and moved to Australia to manage a restaurant. While diving in the Great Barrier Reef, he discovered his love of getting up close to sea turtles and fish.
Australia also inspired his art. He experimented using sand and salt in a style reminiscent of the naïve art of the Aborigines.
"Incorporating seawater and sand makes the painting truly part of the ocean," he said.
He learned dot painting using the bark of a tree for a canvas, sitting semi naked and sweating in the Australian outback. Although the conditions are easier today in his ocean view studio, the process is still painstaking and relies on the build up of texture. The results have earned him some fame. He displays a dot painting of Barack Obama that was used for a Chicago magazine cover, and he has been featured in diving magazines for his adventures at many of the world's reefs.
Currently he's leading a program for adults at Arrowhead Society in Sechelt entitled the Art of Creation.
In December they began with nine bare canvases and laid down the first paint on the subject of forests. It's a comfortable theme, he points out, because inspiring images on the Coast are readily available. Expect more tree depictions to find their way into his work and perhaps a few of the ocean inhabitants that swim outside his window.
"The best diving in the world is right out here," he said, indicating the Strait of Georgia, "but it's freezing."
Rogest's website is as informative as his paintings. Find it at www.rogest.com.
