For six years, Ernie Barnes was a professional football player for the Colts, Chargers and Broncos, but that's a minor footnote to his story.

His father was a shipping clerk for Liggett Myers Tobacco Company in Durham, North Carolina, and his mother headed up the household staff of a prominent Durham attorney.

Young Ernie was chubby and unathletic. His way of dealing with bullying was to retreat to quiet corners and find refuge in his beloved sketch books.

One day at school, while sketching in a quiet corner, his school's masonry teacher Tommy Tucker who was also the weightlifting coach, found Ernie. He was impressed with Ernie's drawings and asked him about his grades and goals. Tommy shared how bodybuilding improved his strength and outlook on life and soon Ernie had a new friend and a new direction.

With Tommy's guidance and encouragement, by the time Ernie was a senior in high school, he was captain of his football team and the state shot-put champion. He received 25 athletic scholarship offers, but segregation prevented him from attending Duke University or the University of North Carolina. He ended up attending the all black North Carolina College at Durham (formerly the North Carolina College for Negroes) where he majored in art.

In 1956 when Ernie was 18, he went on a field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Ernie looked but could not find any work by Negro artists. He asked the docent. The docent explained, "Your people don't express themselves that way."

Twenty-three years later (1979), Ernie returned to that same museum for a solo exhibition of his work. North Carolina's governor Jim Hunt attended. In 1990, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by North Carolina University. And, in 1999, that same university awarded him "The University Award," its highest honor.

Many of Ernie's paintings are filled with figures, but sometimes he focuses on an individual. In Hoop Dreams and Hula Hoop done in 1978 and 1979, he shows long limbed figures in athletic action but removed from others in a deserted brown-grassed pasture straight out of an Andrew Wyeth painting.

On critic praised Ernie Barnes' nod to Andrew Wyeth by giving a new name to Hula Hoop, calling it "Christina's Inner World.

Hoop Dreams also recalls Wyeth's Christina's world, showing the distant solitary prairie house balanced by the brown wooded planked backboard behind the the homemade bushel basket hoop.

Another aspect of Ernie Barnes' paintings was his respect for the dignity and strength of black women. In My Miss America 1970, Ernie makes an unmistakable statement of what beauty is and what it isn't. Real beauty is in the unconditional love expressed in hard work, long hours, enduring strength and an abiding love that persists and endures in spite of all kinds of obstacles.

Similarly in Study for a Woman of Color, he shows the saint-like character a black woman must have to continue onward, while enduring racial smears, taunts and hatred.

In Screen Door, he shows the strength of a black woman within a relationship, showing so much love in a candid embrace, an intimate glimpse.

In Window Wishing, Ernie makes a powerful statement. The store's window exhibits thin and faceless manikins dressed in high fashion, a beauty women should strive for. But for Ernie, the three real women peering at the store window are the real beauties, although here, they may be allowing themselves a brief flight of momentary fantasy.

Another defining aspect of Ernie Barnes' art is the pure joy expressed by his figures.

The colorful clothing and expressive movement with all kinds of rhythmic gestures are inviting, generating in others an infectious spirit. Ernie's paintings reflect the joyful communal dignity experienced within the African American community.

A major portion of Ernie's work dealt with athletics. Ernie was named the "Sports Artist of the 1984 Olympic Games." LAOOC President Peter Ueberroth said Barnes "captured the essence of the Olympics."

Since retiring from the Lakers at age 42 in 1989, Kareem Abdul Jabbar has been active as an actor, a coach, a global cultural ambassador for the Obama administration and an author and guest columnist. Kareem visited the Ernie Barnes Retrospective exhibition when it opened and wrote a review in the Hollywood Reporter.

In it, he offers his personal insight, "I was one of the subjects in his 1987 painting Fastbreak (featured in the CAAM exhibit, as is The Sugar Shack), which was commissioned by the Los Angeles Lakers. It shows Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis and me running down the court, the ball midair with no one controlling it. Our feet seem to be floating above the floor and our legs are positioned as if we are dancing to some music that only we can hear.

"The four of us who are black and in the foreground seem to be communicating telepathically, as if we understood what this game — what all games — meant to us individually and to other African Americans. That we were playing for all of us. This same sense of individual elation at pushing the limits of the body, while at the same time pushing how the world sees what we are capable of, is a hallmark of most of his sports paintings, many of which are in this exhibit."
(Link to Kareem's article in the Hollywood Reporter.)

Beyond painting and football, Ernie appeared on television and in movies. In 1967, he was a guest on I've Got a Secret, as the ex-football player turned artist. In 1969's Number One staring Charlton Heston and Jessica Walker, Barnes played Deke Coleman. In 1981, Barnes played baseball catcher Josh Gibson of the Negro League in the television movie Don't Look Back with Lou Gossett Jr. playing pitcher Satchel Paige.

Barnes' paintings were also used in many television productions. Beyond Good Times, his works appeared in Columbo, The White Shadow, Dream On, The Hughleys, The Wayans Bros, Wife Swap, and Soul Food. In the movies, his paintings are featured in 2002's Drumline, 1991's Boyz N The Hood, and 2016's Southside With You.

Ernie Barnes died in LA in 2009 due to a battle with myeloid leukemia. He requested that his ashes be spread in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina, and also in Carmel, California, one of his favorite places to visit.

Ernie Barnes: A Retrospective is on view through September 8th at the California African American Museum in Exposition Park, next door to the LA Coliseum. While we were there, we stopped in and saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour, located steps away at the California Science Center. The New George Lucas Museum is under construction nearby. In future years, Exposition Park will be even more of a premier LA destination.

Beyond Linda's studio (by appointment), her paintings are currently showing at:

Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection,
located in the town of Bodega, west end of town a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department. Also visit the Artisans Coop nearby.

Corrick's "Art Trails Gallery"
located in downtown Santa Rosa on 4th Street, just steps from Santa Rosa's reopened Town Square.

and there will be open studios (see above) in September, and a selection at Graton Gallery in late December 2019 into January 2020, reception December 21, 2-5pm

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

... IN GRATON, CA ...
Linda Sorensen's studio and Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's showroom is now located in Atelier One, Graton. You may view all paintings in Linda Sorensen's or Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's online offerings. Call or email for an appointment.

... IN YOUR HOME ... Call or email for a an appointment. If appropriate, we'll bring the art to you (up to 200 miles from Bodega Bay).

... ON LINE ... Call or email about pieces which interest you. We offer FedEx shipping (included in price) in the U.S. for major purchases.