Bob
Dejulio
Bob
Dejulio
Western Reflections
Reviewed by Kathryn Retzler
REMEMBER WHEN YOU
WERE A KID, and you would rather look
at a picture
book than read one? When history was hard to swallow dry, but a lot
more
palatable if it showed people living it? Try a taste of Bob DeJulio’s
new
book. Rather than smother you with words, this master storyteller
serves
up Western Colorado in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with
ink and watercolor, brush and canvas. And he does it with artistic
accuracy
that will leave you hungry for more.
DeJulio
grew up (and still lives on part of) a family farm that stood
near the present-day Black Canyon Golf Course in Montrose, Colorado.
His
family (originally named deGulio) migrated from Roccocarominico, Italy.
His grandfather worked with Otto Mears on construction of the Rio Grand
Southern from Ridgway to Durango. His father, born in Telluride, worked
the mines and his uncles farmed and homesteaded on the Dallas Divide.
Growing
up, and in later years while working for various companies (his “day
job”
was mostly in commercial art and sign painting), DeJulio interviewed
and
visited with the pioneers who made history here—turn-of-the-century
farmers,
railroad workers, miners, wagon and stagecoach drivers, sheep herders,
ranchers and cowboys. He visited museums and libraries, perused old
photographs
and explored the many sites soon to become “ghost towns.” He worked on
movie sets, helping paint scenery for films like True Grit.
(DeJulio
met many of the stars, including John Wayne.)
As a result, DeJulio
has created a series of paintings
that tell the
story of the “old west,” 112 of them are in this book and many more in
banks, businesses—one of his first still hangs in the Red Barn—and
private
homes throughout the area. Mention Bob DeJulio’s name to just about
anyone
in Montrose, and they’ll point you to one of his wonderful paintings.
What’s
most remarkable about DeJulio’s work is the authenticity and the sense
of really being there. The “Ophir Depot,” a moody night scene, was
painted
from memory. The Rio Grande Southern train near Placerville comes from
his grandfather’s stories. The ‘Massorotti Ranch’ (used in the movie True
Grit,)
comes from memories of his uncle’s farms there. Many of his
paintings show snow or rain and depict the harsh times faced by people
of that era. Many show stagecoaches and ore wagons, teams of horses
working
farms and ranches. DeJulio works with the light, using storm clouds,
backlighting,
moonlight or harsh, dry desert sun to set his scenes. Most of all, he
depicts
the rugged life lived by the pioneers who triumphed over extreme
weather
and nearly-impossible geography to settle the rugged San Juan
Mountains.
96 pages, 112 paintings. Western
Reflections. Available at local bookstores and through the publisher.
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