ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996               TAG: 9603140014
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3    EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: MONETA
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER 

LEE RIDES AGAIN IN MONETA

John Arnesen is pretty fond of his life-size oil painting of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, but if he ever moves, the painting won't be coming with him.

That's because the general is a part of the retiree's Smith Mountain Lake home. Arnesen's friend, Rhode Island portrait painter Elizabeth Nordstrom, painted it directly onto the wall of his den.

"Maybe it'll enhance the value of the house with the right person," he said. "You sure can't pick it up and take it with you."

Nordstrom, who has painted portraits of governors and senators for the Rhode Island statehouse, decided to paint Lee last year after she and Arnesen visited the site of Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

"I really fell in love with the state of Virginia," she said in a recent phone interview. "I was really inspired."

She had already painted a sunflower on Arnesen's wall on a previous visit, so it didn't take too much coaxing to get him to let her paint the Rebel leader.

Decked out in full dress unform, the 5'10" Lee stands besides Arnesen's fireplace, framed by a sky-blue background and a tattered battle flag.

"It's quite imposing," Arnesen said of his stoic house guest. "People come to the door and wonder who that is standing by my fireplace."

Nordstrom's now working on a series of Civil War paintings, which will probably include another portrait of Gen. Lee.

But she said, "I'll do it on canvas this time so I can exhibit him."

LENGTH: Short :   41 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  LAURA M. KLEINEHENZ/Staff. John Arnesen (left) has a 
          life-size image of Gen. Robert E. Lee painted on the wall of his 
          den. Elizabeth Nordstrom, a family friend and portraitist from Rhode
          Island, took three weeks in April 1995 to do the work.