TOUCHDOWN

TO GET TO SLIPPERY Rock, I took the turnpike extension, then Interstate 80 across the top of Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg, Bellefonte, Loch Haven, then names I had never heard of, almost to the Ohio Border. It’s beautiful country, but it’s sparse. Exit at Barkeyville, if that gives you any idea.

I went to paint a football game at Slippery Rock University, which is about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. The town of Slippery Rock has a touch more than 3000 residents. When school starts, that number quadruples.

I had been asked to do a painting as a retirement gift for the university's president. Several subjects were discussed, and we arrived at a live painting of a night football game from the sidelines. He loves his football.

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Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net

STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK