Santa Rosa Valley artist is man of many talents
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

Gary Saderup

Gary Saderup sometimes has to pinch himself.

Nope, he's not dreaming.

Saderup's job as a portrait artist has taken him around the world- to Africa, Japan and Australia. One day, as he sat in a hotel room halfway across the earth, he started thinking.

"My earliest memory of art was maybe when I was 4 years old, taking a lesson in Santa Monica with Mr. Ball," he said, unable to recall his teacher's first name. "He was helping me draw dinosaurs. It was funny to reflect on this while overseas. This thing I love to do has taken me all over the world."

Saderup, who has lived in Santa Rosa Valley since 1994, is renowned for his immaculate charcoal portraits, among them stunning renditions of Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali. He recently completed larger pieces in acrylic and oil, including one that features trumpet player Louis Armstrong and another of Geronimo, the famed Apache Indian leader. A gallery in Temecula is currently featuring Saderup's charcoals.

Saderup's been a professional artist for 31 years, but he has more than one field of interest.

For the last three years, he's been producing plays with actor Patrick Warburton. The most recent was the quirky, insightful comedy "Darwin in Malibu," which played for the month of September at the Thousand Oaks High School Performing Arts Center. Saderup and Warburton also acted in the play by Englishman Crispin Whittell.

"It was a very clever piece," said Saderup. He played the role of Charles Darwin, who lives on the beach in Malibu with his surfer girlfriend. "It give the audience a lot to think about. We developed an audience, and we were very happy about that."

On closing night, Sept. 30, Saderup learned that playwright Whittell would be attending the show. He didn't want the rest of the cast to get nervous, so he kept Whittell's presence a secret until the curtain came down.

"When I told the actors, they were flabbergasted; they were so pleased," he said. "We all had a chance to meet him and say hi. That really doesn't happen very often."

Saderup and Warburton joined forces in 2005 and have also produced Shakespeare classics "Othello" and "Macbeth." Saderup, who was grew up in Venice, Calif., had been acting for many years before taking a break from theater in 1984.

"I was pretty much out of it for over 20 years," he said, "and then I had to come back and play Macbeth and then Othello. Those aren't exactly the easiest roles to play. It was a little nerve-racking."

With no plans to slow down, Saderup and Warburton are keeping their eyes open for another play for 2008.

"We're looking for some really new material, something that's never been done type of deal," the artist said. "I don't think we have any plans of stopping."

Saderup completed his first portrait when he was 14. His earliest charcoal portraits were of movie stars from the 1930s and '40s.

"I was so pleased when I was finally able to achieve a likeness," he said.

The Santa Rosa Valley resident studied theater at the University of Hawaii and Brigham Young University before spending summers working at Cedar City Shakespeare Festival in Utah and the Santa Maria Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts.

After that, Saderup attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and began selling his work on the weekends at flea markets in Costa Mesa. Eventually he got picked up by galleries, and for the last 15 years he's set up a kiosk with his work at The Oaks mall. This holiday season, construction at the mall prevents him from doing so.

Saderup's wife, Mary, is also an award-winning artist, excelling in oil and pastel chalk paintings of animals.

Although he's recently taken up acting again, Saderup has no plans to stop creating his portraits. And charcoal is still his medium of choice.

"I like charcoal. People are always surprised my paintings are in charcoal because of the fine detail I'm able to get out of it," he said. "All artists want to communicate with people, how they perceive life and communicate their feelings to other people. I'm interested in all the arts. I'd like to be a better singer than I am; I'd like to be a better writer than I am. For me, I can best communicate through artwork or acting."