By Debbie Selinsky

Few names evoke clearer images of North Carolina’s natural beauty than that of Bob Timberlake, whose realistic paintings of wildlife, landscapes and old buildings have been exhibited around the world and have made him the best known living artist in the Tar Heel state.

In a recent interview, Timberlake, 75, said he was busy preparing for an exhibit showing through May 18 at High Point University’s Sechrest Gallery. The “Seven Decades of Art 75th Birthday Exhibit” features 75 of Timberlake’s works, from a crayon drawing he did at the age of 5 to “Hydrangeas” painted in 2012, as well as memorabilia from his life.

“I’ve always drawn or painted. Back in those days in North Carolina, I had no instruction and no way to learn,” he says. “I did what I could by studying people I admired – Remington, Wyeth and Homer. I drew things I saw in outdoor magazines. From the process of copying this or that, I would figure out how the artist did what he did.”

Timberlake, whose family lived in Person County before moving to Lexington, won his first national award at the age of 15 for a Pennsylvania Dutch dowry chest he spent 350 hours building and painting. (Little did he know that the chest would turn out to be the precursor to a wildly successful furniture line.)

But also busy with sports, hunting, fi shing, rebuilding cars and racing them around Lexington and the South Carolina coast, young Timberlake had no plans to be an artist.

“I never planned to do art full-time. I was the mechanical person in the family and I’d always planned to work in Dad’s businesses. After I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill (BS in industrial relations), I worked in the family furniture store, funeral home, ambulance service, finance business and gas company,” he recalls.

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May 2012 issue - ENTIRE ISSUE

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