Former Side A band member Rodel Gonzalez becomes an artist of note

Boorish behavior never stopped collectors from bidding up an artist’s work, but the crude antics of a few only increase appreciation for those talented artists who are genuinely likable. The paintings of Rodel Gonzalez are treasures any art lover can display on their wall in good conscience. He is a good person as well as a wonderful artist.

Rodel puts oil on canvas to immortalize and add beauty to pristine shores and exotic animals. He can evoke sympathy for the Honu turtle hatchling making desperate tracks to the distant sea. His light enlivens Santa Monica Pier without a person in sight. These are but two examples from a gifted painter who has produced a prodigious body of work in the past five years.

Painting is the third of three careers orchestrated by Rodel, age 49. He was initiated into painting at age nine by his paternal grandfather Felix and father Rick Gonzalez, whose celebrity portraits once sold on Rodeo Drive. Though Rodel studied fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, his birthplace, he entered adulthood as the front man for the popular Philippine band Side A. He wrote and sang for the band for 15 years until he became a minister at age 35. Through these transitions, he always made time for commissioned murals, portraits and sketches.

Of the connection between music and painting, Rodel says, “The creative process for both forms of art yield a similar type of gratification. I feel the same joy listening to a song I wrote from scratch as seeing a finished painting on what was once a naked canvas.”

In 2002, he moved with his wife Sabrina, two sons and daughter from the Philippines to Hawaii to concentrate on painting. Keeping a strict routine of eight hours a day at the easel, he gained an audience and presence in galleries from coast to coast. Rodel also satisfies growing demand for his art through the magic of a giclée machine that the artist uses to digitally scan originals into limited edition, high resolution reproductions. Among the middle-income buyers, nothing beats giclée paintings, which can be purchased for as little as a tenth of the price of an original.

In late 2007, the Gonzalez family resettled in Culver City, California, near West Los Angeles. His latest works can be seen at the newly opened James Coleman Gallery in Santa Monica. This entrance into the Los Angeles market follows his past and ongoing success at Diamond Head Gallery in Lahaina, Hawaii; Endangered Arts Gallery in Hilton Head, South Carolina; and smaller galleries throughout the U.S.

Coleman Gallery owner Tony Kettering said, “Rodel’s command of color and light amazingly draw you into his paintings making you want to jump in and experience the scene.  I have two of his paintings in my home and they are always conversation pieces, evoking comments like, ‘I wish I were there.’”

Living in Los Angeles gives Rodel quick access to familiar subjects like Santa Monica Pier, but location doesn’t preclude him from re-imagining places he’s never visited. His painting of the giant rocks known as the 12 Apostles in Melbourne Victoria, Australia is an impressive work of fiction. “I like painting without an actual point of reference,” he says. “My paintings are an interpretation of my emotions.

Even when I am present at the sight, I have the freedom to subtract a palm tree or make other changes to bring out the meaning I am trying to convey. That’s a creative advantage that painting as a two-dimensional art maintains over photography even in the Photoshop era.”

The need to market his art in Santa Monica has cut into his easel time, but he appreciates the opportunity to expand his audience. He could increase his sales even more on the Internet. “I may never own a gallery because I need time to paint, but I will only exhibit in galleries. Buying art is an experience that can’t be duplicated on the Web.”

The paintings of Rodel Gonzalez are now available at James Coleman Gallery, 1431 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, 310-393-7829.

Anthony Maddela lives with his wife Susan and children Charlotte and Gregory in Los Angeles. He keeps on writing novels.