This writer having just returned from Bakersfield, California where I attended the Military funeral for Edward A. Reep, "a WWII artist and National Treasure". Ed was mostly known for his WWII European theater paintings depicting life in the front lines of the second world war. I knew him later when he was teaching at East Carolina University.
Ed was always a great story teller. An intellectual, color theorist, magnificent designer and painter of all things in this world both present and past. His subject matter was a constant evolution of ideas taken from his original drawings, his experiences of nature and from historic facts. He represented his thoughts through his paintings, speeches and lectures on art politics and humanity. He was fearless and didn't give a dam what anyone else thought of him. A true artist of the "old school". Ed was a master draftsman and a devout practitioner of figure drawing. He thought no artist could be good enough at drawing the figure and so practice, practice, practice always improving on the last thing was the only way.
As an author he wrote "The Content of Water Color" a fabulous book that revealed his understanding of one of the most difficult and unforgiving mediums an artist can work in.
Ed had a big heart with room enough for all his family and all his students and friends of days gone by. He was loved for all his kindness to everyone he met.
Ed Reep's paintings are in the Smithsonian, and hanging in the a halls of the Pentagon and are in many famous collections and museums all over the world. There is a new website being built in his honor. I am sure Ed Reep's story will only grow deeper and more meaningful as time passes. This man's life is food for our soul. No matter if you are an artist, a collector or just someone who appreciates art.
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