His regime is routine driven. “When it comes to painting, I have a mission to get through a certain point. My large paintings can take four to six weeks and even two to three months,” Yerkes says. “When I leave the studio, I’m thinking about what I’m going to be doing tomorrow.” A Virginia Beach, Virginia, native, Yerkes was a career roofer. He fell into the art world more than 20 years ago when he was con-tracted to repair a co-operative gallery’s leaking roof. “The next day I met with them about showing some of my work. They were in awe of what I was doing with watercolor,” he says. He finished 16 paintings for his one-man show the following year. He sold three pieces on opening night. The show was extended for a second month. His first wife served him separation papers. A developer bought the remaining inventory when the show closed. Episodic chaos gave way to a major turning point for Yerkes. “It’s taken me all my life to get where I am,” he says. “We’re learning every day. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to complete a painting — whether it’s hours, weeks — it’s taken me all my life.” After painting in studios in Norfolk, Virginia, and having his work featured in the city’s daily newspaper, he retreated to Ocracoke and Hatteras islands in the early 1990s. After achieving some recognition from the Dare County Arts Council, he relocated to Kitty Hawk. His work hangs for sale in Greenleaf Gallery in Duck and during annual exhibits of the Watercolor Society of North Carolina, for which he has served as president on three different occasions since 1998. When he’s not in the studio, Yerkes travels to eight to ten annual outdoor art shows like the New World Festival of the Arts in Manteo, August 13-14. People walking the shows sometimes think they are looking at photographs, he says. “I’ve taken liberties with the shapes and color and added personal-ity. Some of the fish images have eyelids. People don’t notice,” he says. A keen observer of human nature, Yerkes watches the way people look at his work. “You can tell who the painters are. They get up real close and start analyzing. I make a choice, other painters make a choice. Do you want to get up and address them and give them some secrets? Part of our success is to share secrets,” he says. His images today are more refined than they were 20 years ago, the edges are harder, he says. “With watercolor you make mistakes whether they’re good or bad,” Yerkes says. Drops appear in some older paintings that he never tried to fix. “To me they were messy. Today they’re clean,” he says. “I’m focused more today than I was in the beginning. There’s a lot of clarity ... now.” It’s Complicated, 29.5 x 41 inches, watercolor. 49 www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
2014-8
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