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Ken has moved from Baytown and everything new about the gallery is on his web site and his Facebook page.
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Ken "the Dauber" Pridgeon ☼ My Life As A Billboard Artist
I
met Ken "the Dauber" Pridgeon this year at the Baytown Fine Rides car
show on Texas Avenue. He was seated comfortably on a folding chair,
artist's pad on his lap, doing what he does – sketching in preparation
to paint. He's a friendly, approachable artist, humble man, avid teacher
and a local treasure, to be sure.
Ken "the Dauber" Pridgeon puts the finishing touches on the new Baytown Art League building's front window.
If people are interested in why I paint so rough I guess it is because
we painted up 65-feet above the ground using rags for brushes. Grabbing
a rag from the box we'd just daub onto the red, black and yellow paint
for the wood grain backgrounds. We would mix up a good background color
on the rag and go horizontally across the board wiggling as we went for
the wood grain, then daub into the black and red for the knotholes. You
get the idea. |
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Ken "the Dauber" Pridgeon ☼ Being dubbed my Dauber name
Last week I told you a little about Ken "the Dauber" Pridgeon and how he exited the Air Force and began painting billboards to make ends meet. This week, I once again sat down with Ken at his studio – KTD Signs on Morrell Street and we dug a little deeper into his passion, which is, of course – painting and painting he does well. He had just put the finishing touches (dauber-style) on his story of struggle and armed conflict, covering the wounding of Sgt. Nick Marshall in the war torn hell of Iraq and we discussed the future of art in Baytown.
This finishes up a two-part story on Ken, but hopefully the best part of his story is yet to be told.
"Many good artists lost their lives on those billboards and this story is just one of many and probably won't help anyone remember the loss. Anyway, I was fortunate to end up with my own sign business and in fact, quite a few businesses altogether. You see I am a good designer, but not a good businessman. (Ken laughs) Somehow I've stayed in business over thirty years, starting with lettering on barges for Hollywood Marine.
Here I was, more artist, than athlete, in another hazardous job! Each day, I would ride a tug out into the Gulf. They would hang me over the side and I would commence to letter those barges, waves lapping up around me. It was good money and I kind of felt like my own boss, but one day I lettered a barge and the thing blew up the next day, letting me know that this was as dangerous as billboard painting. That helped me make up my mind to try something else.
So here I go lettering helicopter pads on offshore oil platforms for my next adventure. The crew loved the fact that I could custom letter logos and all kinds of things. One day I was painting a landing pad with a heavy brush – daubing, as the material was thick and had sand in it to keep the helicopters from sliding off into the Gulf. Mr. Powell of Powell Industries watched me working and asked why I painted like that and I explained the only way to make the paint stick was to daub it on. He laughed and told me from this day forward, he was christening me "Ken the Dauber" and well, the name stuck.
Forty years have passed and I made some good and some bad business decisions, but I've continued to learn and paint and these days I'm solid as steel in my desire to teach budding artists and continue my own education. I just want to be a fine arts painter and have folks stop and stare at my art and the stories each one tells. I am so truly blessed to get up each day and paint. Someone mentioned that I may get rich from my paintings and I just looked them in the eye and said - I already am. Each day I can paint makes my life richer.
Enter the Baytown Art League and Baytown's rich history. City Council has purchased a wonderful building at 110 Texas Avenue for us to have an Art Gallery and School and now it is up to us to justify their faith in us as artists, photographers and anyone who loves art.
I am just a paint dauber, but as I've said, it's my dream to grow into a fine arts painter. One time I heard that there are over a thousand styles of painting and I think I know about 300 of them and I want to learn more. I want to share knowledge and we seasoned artists want to paint our knowledge onto the canvas' of young artists minds. That is what the Art League is all about – sharing. Artists, painters and photographers sharing technique, ideas, experience and the simply joy of our individual artistic endeavors.
With our new building at 110 Texas Avenue we have room to grow. All we need are budding artists. Membership is very reasonably priced and yes, we will gladly accept any and all help we can get to make our new building represent the future generations of artists. We need folks to join and we need a little help from those who are supportive. In fact, a membership would make a wonderful gift for someone you love.
I'm just a dauber, but I want to thank our city council for making this dream come true. I was at one of the town meetings and I'm sure it wasn't easy bringing everyone into agreement on this project, but I know why they did it – to preserve our history through developing the artistic abilities of our budding artists, young and old(er). Our developing artists will record tomorrow's memories, but first we must make a platform for them to grow.
It's my personal dream to paint a large multi-pane mural of the history of Baytown and I am asking to copy any and all old photos that showed the Tri-City area of Pelly, Goose Creek, New Town, Wooster, Baytown and Cedar Bayou, to name a few. I can be reached by phone at 832-514-1452. Come on by for a visit". |
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Artist donates paintings to
Wetlands Center Ken Pridgeon, better known as "Ken the Dauber," has a vision. He sees the pond near his Lee Drive home filled with children and their fathers paddling in boats and fishing. He appreciates the beauty in fish and nature, and wants kids to appreciate them as well. "A kid with a fishing pole is a kid without a gun," the artist said. Well, the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center is helping Pridgeon take steps toward his vision of educating children. The 72-year-old artist has donated several of his original paintings to the nature center. Tracey Prothro, natural resource programs superintendent, said that the Wetlands Center's fishing camps and nature programs drew Pridgeon to the facility. "We do a lot of education of kids, and that spoke to him," she said. "I think they're perfect for here." The five pieces, hanging in a conference room of the main building, depict vibrantly colored fish, luscious skies and fluid waters. "I like to make my fish bigger than the people," he said. "It's a little crazy, but I want you to focus on the fish. The people are not that important." One of the paintings captures Pridgeon's 7-year-old self, fishing in a small pond behind his house. Each nook and cranny of his piece has a different story to tell, from his mother's sewing spool, father's old reel and broken rod. "This is me in my mind as a kid," he said. "It's my first fly rod. I didn't even know what a fly rod was." The Baytonians work can be seen all over town, for he designed several auto shop signs along North Main Street. He earned his nickname, "Ken the Dauber," about 30 years ago when he painted helicopter-landing pads. He said that because the ground was so hard on his paintbrush, he had to daub the paint along the road. "[An official] said, I dub you 'Ken the Dauber,'" he said. "A dabber is not very classy, but a dauber, that has a little flare to it." His friends and family members been become used to calling him by his nickname, so much so that they forget his real last name. "I've been Dauber so long that people write checks to me as Ken Dauber," he said, smiling. Pridgeon is currently working on the last of three panels for the center's snake exhibit. "Chiquita [the snake] is bright yellow, and will look beautiful in there," Prothro said. Pridgeon is a jack-of-all-trades, dabbling in poetry writing, singing and inventing. But his canvases and paintbrushes hold his passion. "[Fish] are beautiful," he said. "I want them to see the beauty in everything, not just in fish, but see the silver lining in everything."
Local artist brings history to
life
'The Dauber'
teaching art for all ages It wasn’t until his 72nd birthday that Ken "The Dauber" Pridgeon decided to pursue his passion for painting when his son, Shawn, asked him to paint a portrait for a friend’s funeral. Shawn died one year ago but his encouragement spurred "The Dauber’s" talent and led to several commissioned paintings throughout the city, hundreds of portraits and the opening of the Dauber School of Fine Art.
Eighty-eight people joined "The Dauber" at the school’s grand opening celebration Jan.16. The crowed huddled inside of Pridgeon’s home and were entertained by an art demonstration by the artist and complimentary barbecue. "It was a good time," Pridgeon said. "I’m glad there was enough barbecue and people showed up in the weather. Students will learn to paint by using the "Dauber System." The method uses Corel Draw 12, a graphics program, to impose images onto landscapes or scan images, which are then projected onto a canvas for the artist to paint. Pridgeon walked a long hard road. to became "The Dauber." While he was in the Air Force, Pridgeon was known for his drawing talents and was often asked to draw for fellow airmen. In 1956, while stationed in Florida, he took Norman Rockwell’s famous artist class. During the class, Rockwell showed how he used a projector to paint the majority of his work. A fan of Rockwell’s, Pridgeon was disappointed in the artist’s painting method. "I was so mad," he said. "It took me a week to get one." After the military, Pridgeon tried to find work as an illustrator for the Houston Post and The Chronicle. "They say they couldn’t use me do to lack of experience," he said. "I told them I was trying to gain some." Unable to find work drawing for newspapers, he set his sights a little higher, 65 feet to be exact. Pridgeon went to work for Eller advertisement as a billboard painter. Every day he would strap ropes through "falls," hooks on both shoulders, and battle yellow jackets and pigeons for equal space. "We had to let the yellow jackets sting us," he said. " It’s not like we could run away." The final straw for Pridgeon was when a pigeon flew into his jacket on the job.
"I was knelt down painting when a woman was trying to figurer out what I was doing," he said. "I’ve been ‘The Dauber’ ever since." Now his artwork can be seen at Roosters Steak House, the Baytown Historical Society, City Hall and the Eddie V. Gray Wetlands Center. Two years ago, he was asked to teach a portrait class and become a member at the Baytown Art League. It did not take the artist long to find he could also be passionate about helping others find their creative outlet. Along with friends Alan Theis and Mike Meyer, he built The Dauber School of Fine Art in only three weeks. The school is equipped with five workstations with computers and was not built with grants or loans. " We couldn’t afford contractors," "The Dauber" said. "It was done with hard work money from my own pocket." He said the road he has traveled was not his intended path but he’s excited about his adventure in art education and being a constant student of his craft. "All I was trying to do was be a portrait artist," "The Dauber said. "It’s amazing what you can do in 75 years."
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