A new dimension for wood paintings

EASTPORT – Intarsia could be the name of a South Sea island with swaying palm trees and coconut milk.

But you don’t have to travel far to learn about Intarsia and see the works of wood artist Ralph Hicks, who began his company, Island Intarsia, after leaving the oriented strand board plant in Baileyville, which was then run by Georgia-Pacific Corp.

Hicks retired from G-P and began to make some works in wood. He started to give them away. Then, through his son, Chris, he learned about a business course at Washington County Technical College in Calais called Incubator Without Walls.

“I wrote about a 20-page business plan, which really was overkill for a little business,” Hicks said with a laugh.

Last summer Hicks and his wife, Deen, took several of his pieces to an art festival in Bangor. “I paid my 50 bucks, and we went over, and I got a lot of attention,” he said.

Hicks creates mosaics from various species of wood. The finished piece has been described as a three-dimensional painting in wood.

He has pictures of moose, birds and dogs.

Intarsia is an art form that began in 15th century Italy and involves inlaying contrasting pieces of wood to form a picture. The word Intarsia is from the Latin verb interserene, “to insert or to inlay wood.”

Trained as an engineer, Hicks says his affinity for wood spans three decades.

At one time he was the general manager of G-P’s oriented strand board plant and the stud mill in Baileyville.

The OSB plant manufactures panel products made of strands of wood sliced from small logs and held together with a binder.

The stud mill, which now is closed, produced dimension fir, spruce, red pine and hemlock lumber, including 2-by-4s and 2-by-6s.

“I have interests in everything from soup to nuts. I started out as a civil engineer building buildings, power plants,” he said.

Several years ago he discovered his creative side while he and Deen, who is his business partner, were at their camp. “This friend of mine came up and he had a golden retriever made out of wood. He couldn’t even spell Intarsia, so after he left I went on the Internet and typed in ‘Intarsia’ and some things came up,” he said.

As Hicks delved deeper into the subject, the idea of creating the wood pieces intrigued him. He found a woman in Tennessee who sold the patterns. His first project was a golden retriever. “It was a little crude, but I kinda liked it,'” he said.

Hicks explained that each piece of wood is selected for color variation and grain direction in accordance with the pattern. The pieces are then marked and cut to form the desired picture.

To obtain the three-dimensional effect, each piece is hand-fitted and shaped. The final piece is hand-sanded with several grits of sandpaper until a smooth finish is achieved.

Each piece is then given three coats of clear gelcoat and glued onto a birch plywood backboard. Three spray coats of clear protective satin finish are applied to protect the completed picture.

It takes up to 16 hours to produce one piece. He uses a variety of woods, including cedar, poplar and oak.

He estimates he can make two a week. “It depends on the size,” he said. He plans to have 20 pieces ready in time for this year’s art fairs.

Deen Hicks said she was not surprised at her husband’s new work. “You talk about his role as a plant manager and his analytical side, but he does have a softer side and that is what brings this out,” she said.

Ralph Hicks said he plans to keep the business small, creating single pieces to sell to collectors or display at art shows. “It is never going to be a big business,” he said.