Roberta Writes – Guest interview: Dwight Roth’s World of Art and Handcrafts #art #painting #guitar #handcrafts

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Today, I am delighted to introduce you to Dwight Roth and his beautiful artworks. Dwight has also recently made the most marvelous electric guitar. Below he shares the significant steps of his creation process.

Thank you, Dwight, for this wonderful article.

Welcome Dwight

First of all I would like to thank Robbie for taking the time to honor me with this interview.

Tell us a bit about your art journey – when did you start drawing and painting? Is it a hobby or did you study art and use it in your working life?

I am a self-taught painter. I learned many of my painting skills from watching Bob Ross and other painters on PBS television. I did a hand full of paintings when I first got married, but did not get into painting regularly until I retired in 2012.

What is your favourite medium to work with from a painting point of view?

I started painting with oils, later using acrylics, and now I am experimenting with watercolors. Acrylics seem to work best for me, since they dry fast and I can go back and cover my mistakes or change what I don’t like. I really like watercolors, but they are very unforgiving once color touches the paper.

What are your favourite artworks – include as many as you want with any information about them and a poem if you have one.

My first major painting was done back in the 1970s in oil. It was of my mother’s home farm in central Pennsylvania. As a teenager, I worked there five summers for my uncle.

A year or two after I started painting regularly, a neighbor down the street stopped by and asked me if I would do a mural of Hobbiton Shire on their garage wall. Her husband was a big fan of Lord of the Rings so she wanted to surprise him. It was a big undertaking, but I sketched out what I thought would work and they approved it. Painting on such a big space was great fun!

I love steam trains, and so I have made an attempt to try painting them. This is one I did for an artist evening on the street in Waxhaw, NC. It is of a coal train coming through the mountains. My grandson came by and helped me get started. I have given this one to him.

I usually paint for myself, so I tend to get emotionally attached to many of my paintings. Here are a few that I really like.

Picture caption: My Grandpa Roth’s Farm

Picture caption: My wife, Ruth

Picture caption: Mountain Meadow

Picture caption: Tears of the Moon

Picture caption: The Catch

Picture caption: Ponte Alexander iii bridge in Paris – made from a small black and white found in a desk drawer at Habitat Restore. My blogging friend Lisa (li-jade) bought this one.

Picture caption: Bringing in the Wood

Picture caption: My Harmony Guitar

Picture caption: Piercing the Darkness – my Christmas painting

Picture caption: Blue Moon Rising

Who is your favourite artist and why? Include a picture of one of their works

It is very hard to pick just one artist. I am drawn to the works of Vincent Van Gough and especially the Stary Night painting which we are all familiar with. I also like the Water Lilies of Monet as well. They both have a very impressionistic style that is fascinating to me.  Their understanding of Nature came through in their work.

Tell us a bit about your handcrafts? I am especially interested in the guitar you have created. Please share a little about that project and a photograph or two.

I have always creating things with my hands. Even as a child I enjoyed DIY projects. Just before Covid-19 I became fascinated with Cigar Box Guitars that I saw on You Tube. Having played the guitar for many years, this seemed like something I wanted to try.

I always like trying something different, so I started off trying to make them using hardshell plastic cases that tools came in. I made a Sawzall two-string bass, and then moved on to guitars made with a router box and paint can lid for the resonator. I used DeWalt drill cases, a chair seat from the Restore, and even made a bass from a Satellite dish that I took off my house Roof. I used a little stick-on pick-up from amazon to help me hear the sound better.

These were all pretty crude instruments and played, but were not that great of a sound. A few weeks ago I decided to try making a solid body electric guitar. Using some wide 12-inch bed boards from the Habitat Restore, I was able to cut out one board with my jigsaw that had holes for the preloaded pick up from Amazon.  Then I cut out a second piece exactly the same without the holes and glued the two together.

Using my table saw blade, I was able to carve and shape the body like many electric guitars. With the belt sander I sanded out the rough saw cuts and get it smooth. I made a neck out of the same wood and painted it with rust-oleum spray paint and some left over pearl red from my truck painting. I coated that with a can of 2K eurethane clear. It came out amazingly well.

Being homemade, it is not perfect. I worked on getting the intonation correct and it plays and picks up very well. I am happy with it.

Pictures and sounds of it can be seen on my blog, https://rothpoetry.wordpress.com and on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/rothdwight.

About Dwight Roth

Author and artist photograph of Dwight Roth

Dwight Roth grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He taught elementary school in Eastern North Carolina before retiring after 29 years. Now he lives with his wife Ruth near Monroe, NC, and spends his time painting and writing. He has self-published several books that are found on Amazon Kindle. He is also published in past Old Mountain Press Anthologies. A book of poems called Ebb and Flow and a children’s book on Alzheimer’s called Grandpa Has Holes in His Head are his latest creations. Ebb and Flow is only available in hard copy from the author at dwru27@aol.com

Find Dwight’s books on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dwight-Roth/author/B017HW5AHG

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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177 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Guest interview: Dwight Roth’s World of Art and Handcrafts #art #painting #guitar #handcrafts”

  6. It is so great to get to know a bit more about Dwight, and to see his beautiful work! Such a wide-range, too. I love the portrait of Ruth and seeing Dwight with his grandson. I saw the guitar on Instagram–so clever!

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    2. Thank you so much for taking time to check out my books. That story came as a result of our experience with my wife’s father who suffered from Alzheimer’s. When I looked there were almost no books for kids about Alzheimer’s of dementia!

      I appreciate your kind words.

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  20. Dwight has impressive skills. It’s wonderful that he resumed painting after he retired.

    One of my retired teacher friends has done the same. He paints practically every day and now has a portfolio of over 5,000 pieces. How passionate is he? Enough to get into his car and paint from there on rainy days. 😊

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  26. It was so interesting meeting Dwight. I am in awe over his crafting abilities. A guitar, of all things. Beautiful.

    My favorite painting was his grandson’s, as is its story. That coal train is really coming through the mountain.

    Thank you, Robbie.

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  27. Dwight is very talented and I love his enthusiasm and his eagerness to try new and experiment. I love the paintings, and the guitar looks incredible. Thanks, Robbie, for this wonderful interview and introduction.

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  28. I so enjoyed this post about Dwight. He is very talented in so many ways, and down-to-earth. Actually, my favorite painting is Bringing in the Wood. It reminds me of wonderful illustrations in children’s books.

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    2. Thank you very much, Jennie. I am happy you enjoyed the post and seeing my work. This painting is a favorite of mine. It centers around the Farmall Tractor which I drove when I worked on my uncle’s farm as a teenager. The tractor came first and the painting sort of painted itself around that focal point! :>)

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      1. You are welcome! I think those memories make for the best art, albeit painting or writing. Pennsylvania farmland and New England farmland is always a warm spot for me.

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  29. This is a terrific interview, Robbie, thank you!

    I’m smitten with Dwight’s work. His paintings are magical, and that guitar is crazy impressive.

    Congratulations on everything you’ve created, Dwight! You are a renaissance man.

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  30. Thank you so much, Resa for your kind words of affirmation. I enjoy doing a variety of things and that keeps me going! The blogging community is most supportive and this is very encouraging to me. So glad you enjoy my work!

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