Roger Ehmpke has had a obsession with art since the age of five. His grandmother would sit down with him during that time and show him how to draw camels, elephants and horses. As he grew older he continued drawing feverishly getting books such as the Walter foster series on drawing when he could.
At age 10 his grandmother took him to see a retired art teacher by the name of Joanne Robechek. He spent nearly every Saturday studying and drawing with charcoal, pastel and finally oil paint. With this lovely lady, He learned many intricacies of various media. He continued drawing and painting with her and a small class for the next 4 1/2 years. This is where he developed most of his hand-eye coordination.
He was off and on with painting and drawing over high school and early college. He received his A.A. of Fine Arts in 1993 from Joliet Junior College.
He did pastel portraits for Image Team for a short time (a small stand inside a mall in Chicago). The time there was memorable as it allowed him to engage with many different people. These models allowed him to strengthen his ability to capture many various personalities, and ethnicities.
He received his B.A. of Fine Arts in 1997 from Columbia College of Chicago.
Picking up painting and drawing again he fell completely in love with it when his sister was dating this young Cherokee guy. He introduced him to an old muralist who invited him to paint a mural on his wall, which is located in Crazy Horse Farms in Crete Illinois, of which is part of the top banner to this web site. He painted many Native American objects such as deer skins, elk hides, buffalo skulls, drums and other sacred objects for him as he was also a medicine man.
He now lives in the Bourbonnais area which is located in Kankakee County IL. He has painted off and on for around 15 years. He enjoys painting realism the most, specializing in portraits and landscapes. He can be found online usually as his day job is Web Coordinator of design and technology at Kankakee Community College.
A few years ago he was proud to place his first portrait in a local art show and it took first place. The show was located in the 2003 Bourbonnais Friendship Festival. The name of the painting is ' the reader ' and can be seen in the gallery of this site.
In 2004, he placed two more pieces in the Bourbonnais Festival. (1) 'Hermanas' which means sisters in Spanish. (2) a portrait of his daughter Jordyn named 'Sugar & Spice'.
He's currently working on a portrait of his wife which is a work in progress on this site.
Artists studied with include: Joanne Robechek, Joe Milosevich, Steven Sherrell and Eddwin Meyers.
Artists Roger Ehmpke aspires toward — Chris Saper (of which he loves her book named Painting Beautiful Skin Tones With Color & Light in Oil, Pastel and Watercolor), Timothy C. Tyler, Marvin Mattleson and William Bouguereau (1825-1905). Furthermore, the artrenewal.org site shares many of Roger Ehmpke's personal Philosophies on realism and modernism.