THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602200101
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Quietly, over the years W.G. ``Rip'' Rylance has been documenting Virginia Beach's history - past and present - in pen and ink drawings which have filled two photo albums so far.
He has anywhere from 100 to 150 realistic black and white drawings, done in a cross-hatch style of everything from Nimmo United Methodist Church to Monk's Place, a familiar landmark down on Princess Anne Road.
From old photographs, Rylance has drawn scenes that are long gone from the landscape. He also photographs and draws older buildings that he figures might be due for the wrecking ball at some point in the future.
Rylance began putting Virginia Beach into pictures about 15 years ago when he started drawing buildings that were significant to his wife, the former Ruth Flanagan. She grew up here and her family has been here since the 1600s.
``I drew Nimmo Church because her mother went there when she was little,'' Rylance said. ``And then I drew Tabernacle (United Methodist Church) because her father went there.
``Her father helped build the Cavalier so that had to be done too,'' he went on.
Rylance started out drawing on location but so many people would stop and ask him what he was doing that he began working from photographs. ``Besides, that way you aren't bothered by insects and flies,'' he said.
Although Rylance worked for a short time as a graphic artist when he retired from the Navy, his drawing has been mainly a hobby. ``It was just something I've always been interested in,'' he said.
Rylance also has always been interested in genealogy. A Michigan native, he began researching his wife's genealogy first because they lived in this area. Artistic renderings of meaningful landmarks in her family's history was a natural way to combine his two interests.
Now, Rylance is spurred on by Edgar Brown, a local history expert who has a whole roomful of photographs, documents and mementos of Virginia Beach history. The relationship began several years ago when Rylance was showing in a Neptune Festival art show. He had done a scene of the old Johns Brothers heating and air conditioning place in Norfolk where Brown worked before he retired.
``Edgar came out to buy it for Johns Brothers,'' Rylance explained.
``From that point on, he has been after me. He will get me to draw things that we don't have good photographs of.
``For example, the old ice house on Norfolk Avenue,'' he went on. ``He had pictures of one side and the other side and he wanted one of the whole thing. He also wanted pictures such as one of the Old Essex House (a hotel) and the old windmills at Dam Neck.
``He has a great eye for detail,'' Brown said. ``We share a lot in common, the history and the love of the place.''
Rylance participated in only one other art show back in the 1980s and decided such shows weren't for him. Over the years he has sold prints to folks who expressed interest, but only recently has he begun to sell his work at the 21st Street Gallery.
For the most part, drawing is still a hobby. He turns out two or three drawings a week, searching out old photographs from the newspaper, from Brown and ``anything I can get my hands on.''
Anything from Grumpy's Hot Dogs at Atlantic and Norfolk avenues, to a train in front of the Cavalier Hotel, from the first Rudee Inlet Bridge to the Cape Henry Lighthouse, you name it, Rylance probably has drawn it.
P.S.: ENJOY A CUP OF TEA, savories and sweets at 1 or 3 p.m. Saturday or Sunday at the Virginia Beach Christian Church Choir's annual tea. Tables for four or six will be set with cloth napkins and table covers and fine china tea services. Background music will be provided. Tickets are $5. Call 481-5102 for reservations.
A WATERFOWL IDENTIFICATION Workshop will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Refuge staff will discuss characteristics and habitat for both diving and puddle ducks. Call 721-2412 for information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow@infi(AT)net.
ILLUSTRATION: Monk's Place, an old familiar landmark down on Princess Anne
Road, is among the 100 to 150 realistic black and white drawings,
done in a cross-hatch style by W.G. ``Rip'' Rylance.
Photo by
MARY REID BARROW
by CNB