Senior center names featured artist for September and October

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — The Shelby Township Senior Center’s featured artist for the months of September and October is Ross Blake. 

He has set up his display at the Shelby Township Activities Center, which will be there until the end of October. The center is located at 14975 21 Mile Road.

“As a child, I always was attracted to art. Cartoons, people, places were things I was first attracted to. Satisfaction always eluded me and still does to this day. My formal training includes classes at Lawrence Technological University and also (the) Center for Creative Studies,” he said. The Center for Creative Studies changed its name to the College for Creative Studies in 2001.

He said that after the Vietnam War, his life mostly involved work and raising his family, which he called “the best work of my life.”

“Now my art is just the same, trying to find my limits. My visions are mostly realist, but also abstract. I use oil, pastel, watercolor and pencil. This has been a lifelong passion. I am mostly self-taught. It has been a terrific experience,” he said.

Bart Mauro, from Shelby Township, first viewed Ross’s art around 2010.

“His landscape art has always had a demure and calming presence. His color palette is bright without being garish or forced,” Mauro said.

Amy Bliss, of Clinton Township, bought art from Blake and said it reminds her every day of the tropics.

“It takes me there,” Bliss said.