THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: Medium
Military hair cut, shirt neatly tucked in walking shorts, white socks standing tall in his sneakers. And he's very fond of the military.
{REST} He also has an answer nearly guaranteed to raise eyebrows when someone asks his occupation.
``I'm a muralist,'' Wilkinson replies.
Yep, he earns a living painting on walls. Big, really big paintings. On the bulkheads of ships, on sides of houses, you name it.
``I guess I've done at least a thousand of them,'' the 43-year-old Norfolk artist said.
There are muralists here and there but few earn the kind of respect and income Wilkinson has.
A Richmonder who was raised in Suffolk, Wilkinson is a graduate of the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York. His first art job wasn't a mural but was markedly off-beat, if not off the wall.
``I was hired to draw station break things for Johnny Carson's `Tonight Show,' '' he said. Not much to it, he conceded. ``A little drawing and the words `Johnny Will Be Right Back.' ''
His first mural was on the wall of a cave at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an exhibition on prehistoric art.
``Several students from Pratt were involved. We did primitive drawings without paint, using berries, mud and burned sticks, the way cave dwellers did it.''
His first solo mural was a beach scene - dunes, waves, gulls - painted in a restaurant he opened in Suffolk, several years after his return from New York. When customers were more complimentary of the mural than the food he began to rethink his career objectives.
Now a partner in Wall Illusions of Norfolk, much of Wilkinson's work has been for the military, painting murals on bulkheads.
``Sometimes we'd be flown out to the ship and spend days at sea painting,'' he said. ``One of my first Navy jobs was to paint scenes for the enlisted mess of the aircraft carrier Eisenhower.''
On the Eisenhower he painted scenes from a New England town, with quaint shops and lobster boats in the harbor.
Another large mural required much more research, he said. That one was for the enlisted mess on the aircraft carrier Nimitz. ``It showed the history of naval aviation through aircraft carriers, ending with a painting of the Nimitz,'' he explained.
In his work Wilkinson uses large rollers for background and large blocks of color. Large and small brushes are used for figures and objects. His smallest brush is about eight inches long with very thin bristles. ``I use that one for very detailed work such as the gleam of light in an eye,'' he said.
The muralist's specialty is a technique called trompe l'oeil (literally, trick of the eye). The technique creates the illusion of reality for the viewer who is sometimes startled by the effect.
``I suppose the artist who has influenced me most is Richard Haas, the New York muralist,'' he said. ``Haas is arguably the best in the country. A lot of people here are familiar with his work because of his murals at Waterside.''
A good example of Wilkinson's skill with trompe l'oeil is found at the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach. The wall leading to the aquarium is embellished with a large and very realistic rendering of the bridge tunnel over and under Chesapeake Bay. (Using a more conventional treatment, Wilkinson painted the murals in the museum's current ``Hooray for Rays'' exhibit. In the exhibition room, rays and skates swim in a huge viewing tank surrounded by walls that are covered with paintings of their aquatic kin from the Chesapeake Bay.)
Wilkinson also has done several projects for the Mariner's Museum in Newport News and commercial jobs in several states and foreign countries.
But he does murals for homes, too. Water scenes for dining rooms or floral work for bedrooms, whatever.
``Sometimes it gets to be very interesting,'' he said. ``I once painted a mural, and a child who lived in the house got into the paint and did her own art work on it while I was at lunch. You never saw such a mess.''
Nevertheless, his work on a mural at a private residence has been his most interesting and pleasurable work up to now.
``My favorite is the mural I did for Mary Agee, the former presidential speech writer,'' he said.
``Her husband was the chief executive officer of the Bendix Corporation,'' he said. ``They had a stunning house in a gorgeous setting - next to the 18th hole on the Pebble Beach Golf Course, near Carmel, Calif.''
At Agee's request Wilkinson painted a Francescan Garden on a back wall of the house - a fanciful artwork with hills, mountains and plenty of critters on it.
``She wanted the mural for her children,'' he said. ``So there were plenty of cherubs and flowers and a rainbow.''
Wilkinson said the work was done in a flower garden so he had a breathtaking view of Monteray Bay while smelling the many flowers around him.
``The mural took about five days,'' he said. ``I didn't want to leave because the setting was so perfect. It was the most pleasant work you can imagine.''
by CNB