Greetings from Ocean View - Red Rooster

If someone were to bring all the self-taught artists together, from around the world, Paul Trice said he'd be named No. 1. "I betcha a dollar I'll win. Let 'em prove me different."

Paul Trice, known to a few as "Bobby," but nowadays mostly as "Red Rooster," is fairly new to Buckman Avenue, but certainly not to Ocean View. "I was born in Monkey Bottom, darling," he said gesturing off to his left towards an area mostly swallowed by the Navy in the 1940s.

Despite cranky neighbors (they're just jealous, he said) and a city inspector who dropped by recently, Red Rooster, 77, is determined to turn his rented home into a house of art. The wall in the works now is a mural from the movie "The Little Mermaid." Stucco is the hardest to paint on, he said: "It's like painting on a frog that's full of warts."

On weekends, he drags out paintings to the edge of yard. Some are political, like his depiction of the 2008 news conference when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush. He also painted an homage to Princess Diana and one to his pool partner from Rosy's, his favorite watering hole. But mostly he paints places nearby. "You live in Ocean View," he said, "you live in God's country."

Red Rooster figures if a Monet painting of water lilies can fetch $40 million, his painting of the 9/11 attacks should get at least $1 million. That's why he hopes to travel to New York City next September to sell his work. "You stick around me, baby, you'll learn a few things."

Photo and text by Preston Gannaway

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