Wine As Art: DIGITAL ARTIST BOB DICKEY

By Lisa Snider, findingojai@aol.com

His brush is a stylus. His canvas is a computer screen. His muse is a digital camera. And the wine country is his inspiration. Bob Dickey is an artist.

As I sit with Bob while he sips wine and shares his artwork with me, I’m immediately taken in by the scenes he has created - beautiful watercolors, abstract and impressionist images of vineyards, bottles, and barns in vivid and muted colors.

A retired banking consultant, wine connoisseur, radio show co-host and artist, Bob Dickey is a true renaissance man. More than 5 years ago, Bob was pouring wine part-time at Brander Winery when Gabe Saglie was looking to interview Fred Brander for his Grapevine radio show. “Only Fred was running late,” remembers Bob, so Gabe asked Bob to do the interview. From then on, Bob got the call whenever Gabe needed a wine expert, and soon Bob became a regular fixture on the show as co-host.

At about the same time, Bob was becoming increasingly fascinated with the digital camera and constantly had his lens trained on wine-themed images. He was also ramping up his knowledge of the wine business. After taking classes at Allan Hancock College, and an intensive course at UC Davis in wine marketing and finance, he began consulting for local wineries. “I was seeing that wineries needed more sophisticated marketing.”

He used his digital camera to create brochures, posters and other collateral material for his clients. Then he purchased software that allowed him to manipulate the photos and began experimenting with colors, shapes and various techniques. Friends noticed his artwork and encouraged him to enter local shows. His work was soon accepted into the Mission Arts Show and the Natural History Museum Art Walk.

Today, Bob’s paintings are on display at Carhartt, Palmina, Consilience, Brander and Foxen. East Beach Wine, a popular wine retailer in Santa Barbara, also has a collection of his posters. The Santa Barbara Wine Country and Urban Wine Trail maps, for example, are his creations. But Bob’s biggest claim to fame, thus far, is the Sideways movie map, which he was commissioned to do just before the film’s release. This extremely popular guide to wineries and places featured in the Academy Award-winning film has been reprinted five times so far; more than 120,000 copies have been distributed and more 75,000 copies downloaded off the Internet.

Wine plays a big part in Bob’s paintings. “I’m intrigued by bottles and their curves - very sensuous.” Indeed, making regular appearances in his work are bottles, pears, wine glasses and barrels - all with similar voluptuous shapes.

Light and color influence his decisions when he snaps a photo and Bob applies his treatments later. When he takes a picture, he sees something in his mind’s eye which usually doesn’t appear in the original image. Later, through his computerized manipulations, the image he imagined appears. “Ah, that’s what I saw!”

His work is priced according to size. For example, an 11”x14” painting, matted and encased in a 16”x20” frame, is typically (and quite affordably) around $300. “I don’t expect to get rich on this.”

Ultimately, Bob would like to create marketing pieces for local wineries, although he admits taking pleasure in seeing his work on someone’s walls.

To see samples of Bob’s work and inquire about purchasing or commissioning a painting, log onto www.WineCountryPics.com.

Lisa Snider is an Ojai resident and local freelance writer. Her other columns
are featured on her website, www.findingojai.com.