By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — A high school visual arts teacher in Onslow County (Jacksonville, Camp Lejeune, Topsail Beach, Emerald Isle), Bernie Rosage, Jr., currently lives at the coast for nine months out of the year and three months in Blowing Rock.

“As soon as I retire, that is going to flip-flop. I will be in Blowing Rock for nine months and Jacksonville for three months,” he said. “My favorite way to paint is plein air, rather than in a studio, and the High Country is a target rich environment.”

Rosage is one of the featured artists at Edgewood Cottage the week of July 7-13, for the Blowing Rock Historical Society’s “Artists in Residence” series.

“I love to paint on location, although I do a little bit of studio work. Primarily, I am a landscapes artist. At times I have used photographs for reference, but my style is probably more accurately described as ‘impressionistic realism.’

Bass Lake is my Walden Pond.

The native of Onslow County whose father was in the Marines and married a local girl, said he has been interested in art all his life.

“My mom will tell you I started when I was two years old, coloring on the walls of our house with crayons! But in high school in the 70s, I won some awards for my artwork,” he recalled. “I’ve always had an interest and a talent in it.”

There have been few distractions.

“As a young adult, I got into photography because I wanted to create art fast,” he said. “But then there was an untimely death in our family and I wanted to slow down, so I got into painting, around 1998. I didn’t take it really seriously until 2007 when I went to visit the Monet and Manet exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art. That hooked me. It took me from being a hobby artist to someone who was serious about painting.”

Waxing philosophical, Rosage has a purpose.

“What I love to do when it comes to art is to take the chaos that is all around us and somehow assemble some peace and serenity. My tagline, I guess you would say, is ‘Painter of serenity from the mountains to the coast.’ And I am lucky because I have a place here in Blowing Rock as well as a place on the coast. And, even luckier, I have grandkids here and grandkids on the coast! Nothing in-between… I am looking to get from one to the other the fastest!”

Rosage, who studied art education at East Carolina University, describes himself as a self-taught artist.

“I am a motivated, self-taught artist because I have worked hard at the craft. Studying, researching. Like anything, to do it well you you have to put in the hours. Art is my passion. Some people might say art is a God-given talent but I say God gave me a passion for art. I have worked hard at this, but it doesn’t seem like work when it is a passion.”

For the Edgewood Cottage exhibition, Rosage said he initially brought just over a hundred pieces, of different sizes.

“I’ve done pretty well in selling them this week,” he said. “I have had to bring some more from the house so we wouldn’t have empty walls!”

Like a lot of landscape painters, Rosage is fascinated with how light hits things.

“If I had to say a favorite place to paint around here, it would be Bass Lake. That place is my Walden Pond! When I tell my wife I am going to the office, she knows it is code that I am going to Bass Lake to paint!”