Rock and the Beat Generation
Thank you so much to Simon Warner of ‘Rock and The Beat Generation’ for this super article on my Beatitude Shelf Portrait painting :
“Every picture tells a story
Cassadys and son all part of fine art tale
BACK IN 2022, I had the pleasure of visiting the West Yorkshire studio of English artist Roo Waterhouse and she showed me a very recent image she had completed, one that had my Beat heart racing.
Waterhouse’s remarkable hyperreal painting, which she had entitled Beatitude, followed her trademark principle of rows of book spines depicted in brilliant detail, a professional pursuit that has brought her many literary fans, numerous commissions and also avid customers.
The fact that Beatitude presented a series of titles celebrating both Beat Generation volumes and also books linked to rock artists associated with that original writing movement made it of particular interest to Rock and the Beat Generation.
Earlier this year, Waterhouse, having sold the eye-catching original through a British gallery, responded to popular demand by producing a limited edition print run of the oil painting.
When I wrote then, in these very pages, about the restricted reproduction of one hundred versions of the image, a figure at the very heart of latter day Beat culture – John Allen Cassady, son of Neal and Carolyn and friend of R&BG – expressed the hope he could obtain a copy.
The artist obliged and now Cassady Jr. has a signed print – 6/100 – in pride of place in his own home office in Eugene, Oregon. He enthuses: ‘To think that image is an oil painting and not a photograph is quite incredible.’
Pictured above: John Allen Cassady with Roo Waterhouse print and other images from the history of Beat
Beatitude sits alongside other potent Beat symbols – a postcard framing a legendary shot of his father with Jack Kerouac, a pose captured by Carolyn herself, an original certificate from Ken Kesey’s famed 1960s acid tests dedicated to John himself and an image of Dead guitar hero and Neal’s friend Jerry Garcia.
The Waterhouse print, a breathtaking example of this creative’s extraordinary brush skills, gives due space to classic Beat works – On the Road, Howl and Other Poems, Naked Lunch – but, in addition, incorporates much-loved memoirs by both Cassady parents.
Included, too, are significant books by post-Beats linked to the New Journalism, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, not to mention Kesey himself, observers all linked to the social revolutions of the time, plus items connected to major musicians – Bob Dylan and Tom Waits – who have aligned themselves with Beat traditions over many decades.
Pictured above: A close up of the Beatitude image. The detailing is stunning.
Roo Waterhouse is delighted with these developments. ‘As an artist specialising in painting “Shelf Portraits” of treasured and iconic books, I am always looking for new inspirations for my work. When I first came up with the idea for a Beat Generation theme, prompted by a collection on the shelves of a bespoke painting client, I never imagined that one of the limited edition prints would end up in the home of John Cassady, son of Neal and Carolyn Cassady. I’m thrilled!’
She adds: ‘I included Neal’s The First Third and Carolyn’s Off the Road in the painting, alongside something from each, or most, of the other Beat characters, to try and capture a flavour of the era and beyond. The original painting sold last year at Byard Art in Cambridge and so the limited edition print was released.’
Pictured above: Artist Waterhouse in her studio with other ‘Shelf Portraits’
‘I’ve had some fascinating correspondence with John over the last few months,’ the painter reveals, ‘with many tales from his childhood of his father’s exploits with Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg and the rest of the Beat crew. What a life!’ ”
Read more Beat articles at Rock and The Beat Generation