DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706190387

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ANDREA GIBSON, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE 

DATELINE: MONETA                            LENGTH:   73 lines

ONE ARTIST'S STROKE OF BRILLIANCE BRIGHTENS BUILDINGS ACROSS STATE

Outside the Water Works convenience store in Bedford County, a man pauses in the cold drizzle, leans up against his pickup truck and gazes at the side of the building.

``Ya' dreamin'?'' asks Randy Battaglia.

``Yeah,'' sighs the man, admiring the new mural that consumes the side of the store. It features a huge bass leaping from Smith Mountain Lake on the line of a lucky fisherman.

``I usually don't have anything mechanical in my work at all, but I made an exception with the boat,'' said Battaglia, an artist who spent about a month painting the mural. ``I'm really into wildlife.''

Battaglia, 34, describes the mural as a composite of about five different places on the lake. It includes a cove, an island and a view of Smith Mountain from the Bedford side.

``I know it sounds weird, but I can see the painting before it's even there,'' said Battaglia, who approached Water Works owner Tim Wray about the project after driving past the store several times and noticing the blank wall.

``He pitched the idea, and then we just ran with it,'' Wray said. ``He sketched something out right there, and it looked great. From what (the employees) have been telling me, we've been getting a fair amount of response to it.''

Battaglia, the son of a produce farmer, grew up on the coasts of Virginia and Florida where he developed a passion for animals, particularly marine life. At 15, he dropped out of school and started out on his own.

``I found (school) very boring, and I wanted to paint and see the country,'' he said. Battaglia hitchhiked out West, where he worked on a dude ranch, teaching visitors to ride horses. He began putting artwork out here and there ``and people were buying it.''

In 1983, Battaglia moved with his grandmother to the four corners area of Colorado and studied under Navajo Indians. He learned to paint on pottery and slate, making the latter his specialty. Battaglia met his wife, Carla. They married in 1985.

Carla Battaglia, also an artist, said the couple has never had a traditional home. The two have spent most of the past 12 years traveling around the country selling artwork.

``It's a very free lifestyle, and it's not for everybody,'' said Carla Battaglia, who home-schools sons Jonathan, 11, and Robert, 9. She said the lifestyle had afforded many opportunities for the boys, who often add touches to Battaglia's murals.

``They get to meet different cultures, learn about formations of the land - all kinds of stuff,'' she said. ``I think it's been really good for them.''

But now Battaglia said the family is ready to settle down and make Big Island, where his grandparents once lived, their home. They are preparing to build a rock house - without electricity - on the property they own outside of town.

``We're not your everyday people,'' he said. ``We're very simple. . . . We hang around a campfire a lot. We're mountain people.

``We actually had to make ourselves stop traveling. It's so much fun.''

Most recently, the family spent four months in Virginia Beach, where Battaglia painted a mural of a giant blue crab on the side of Chick's Oyster Bar, a project that brought him $27,000.

``I've never had any formal training. The Lord has always been the head of everything I do,'' said Battaglia, who has work displayed in galleries from Alaska to the Florida Keys. ``The term `starving artist,' we've never known that.'' MEMO: Andrea Gibson is a staff writer for the Roanoke Times. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Randy Battaglia has painted murals on buildings across the state,

including one recently at Chick's Oyster Bar in Virginia Beach. This

one, in Bedford County, shows a bass leaping from Smith Mountain

Lake.

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