THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180220
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940618 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
In all that wartime flying, ``I only had one bullet hole in one aircraft,'' he said.
{REST} Maybe that's why his award-winning etchings of Navy planes landing on carriers, flying in tandem and cutting through cumulus clouds look downright cheerful.
``I don't like the idea of getting shot down,'' said Ellsworth, 68. The Virginia Beach artist spent Thursday, dawn to dusk, stationed at space 2426 - between 24th and 25th streets in the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show, where several dozen of his prints are displayed.
``I look at it in terms of the mission - and getting it done.''
Plainly, Ellsworth's mission for the four-day outdoor art show was to stay cool, reunite with artist friends - and sell. In the midst of all that, he managed to squeeze in a few war stories about life on the art-show circuit.
He recalled how, in the mid-1980s, a cigar-puffing judge stopped at his booth.
``You the artist?''
``Yeah,'' Ellsworth said, warily.
``It's very obvious to me that you know one helluva lot about naval aviation and one helluva lot about bars.''
Then the judge - artist Richard Merkin, whose art is often in The New Yorker magazine - rolled on by with his entourage.
As it turns out, Ellsworth has a national reputation for such imagery. In Oshkosh, Wisc., at the Experimental Aviation Association Museum, an entire wall is devoted to his etchings of Navy planes and Navy aviators swapping tales while sipping suds. ``They told me I'm the only one who does military bar scenes - so keep 'em coming!''
On the Boardwalk in the 1970s, a man grew incensed because Ellsworth wouldn't sell him a work with a sold sticker on it. He thought Ellsworth was being coy, trying to up the price. So, glaring at the naval artist, he peeled off $3,000 in cash as he bought the first painting he saw in the adjacent artist's booth.
Most of Ellsworth's prints are priced at about $60 - as the market goes, a modest sum for an original framed etching. Typically, he sells about 60 prints at each Boardwalk show.
``I'm not in this to make killing. If I were, I'd hold up filling stations. That would be far more lucrative.''
Ellsworth has come of age with this show: It's his 21st consecutive year on the Boardwalk.
A self-taught artist, he first entered the show in 1974, a year after committing himself to art as an after-military-retirement occupation.
``Oddly enough, there's a tremendous similarity'' between the art and military realms, he said. In both, ``everything is based on ability. And everyone has no concept of age.''
The Boardwalk can be one long, hot experience for the artists. From Ellsworth's perspective, Thursday was better than many days he's seen. And sunshine artists - the nickname for artists like Ellsworth who do the outdoor shows - are as attuned to weather as farmers.
At 9 a.m., as Ellsworth and his wife Billie began hanging prints in his display tent, it was hazy and humid. It stayed that way until early afternoon, when Ellsworth assessed the sky. ``If the sun stays gone, we're OK. If it comes out - boombah!''
Evidently, the art gods looked upon him favorably. By 3 p.m., the shadow of Ocean Holiday, where Ellsworth and his friends were staying during the show, brushed their booths with blessed shade.
For a dozen years, Ellsworth's display has been positioned between Ric Chin's and Berni Schoenfield's tents.
``We're a family. They're my kids,'' gushed a soulful Schoenfield, 74, a former Life magazine photographer. Photos of Charlie Chaplin were included in his exhibit.
Elseworth, Schoenfield and Chin share a Chinese connection. Chin, who lives in Greensboro, N.C., is Chinese. Ellsworth speaks Chinese and, like Chin, has studied Chinese literature and poetry.
And Schoenfield, who has toured the world as a photojournalist, has a lifelong fascination with China. Later this year, he plans to visit the country for the first time.
The last of three judges came by. All day, each of them tagged displays with ``Selected for Judging'' flags. At day's end, chosen works would be taken to the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, the exhibit's sponsor, where the judges would agree on the winners.
Ellsworth did not get flagged, but didn't seem to mind getting ``shot down'' by the judges. ``Oh, I've got this terrific record. If someone selects me, I'll get a prize. And I get selected every other year.''
by CNB