This is Rumbel Strip Vermont. I'm Erica Heilman.

Today an interview with Central Vermont artist Ed Epstein is a portrait artist of some renown in these parts. I figured I'd go to his house in Montpelier and we'd talk about

painting, which we did. But painting has comprised only a fraction of Ed's artistic

life. As a kid in the 50s he hitchhiked across the country with only a banjo

and a few bucks. He fell in love with a Bach cello sweets and spent the next 20 years

mastering the cello so he could play them.

Ed has designed and built wood stoves, houses, and when his son showed interest in fishing,

Ed built a boat so they could get out to that stand of reeds where the bass were.

Ed Epstein's whole life has been an art project. In this hour we talk about the mysterious process of portrait painting, its difficulties and occasional

satisfactions. But mostly in this hour we talk about boats building them, sailing them for years and what became of Ed's beloved 30 foot schooner, Ruby.

First, Ed Epstein and painting portraits.

It's a very strange, very fraught experience.

From my point of view, I feel that I have to maintain

a kind of pattern.

I'm imposing on someone when I'm asking them to sit still for a few hours. So every time we have a conversation going all the time, I'm trying to keep the person entertained and involved that sounds kind of awful I mean it sounds exhausting well it's very intense've been heard to say that painting, especially the portrait,

is exhausting work.

Really exhausting.

So do you feel when you start a portrait, do you have the experience of every time thinking, how do you do this?

Yes, yes. Like every painting is like starting all over again.

And I'm using my memories of the past times to get clues.

Even on a technical level, do you start in the middle?

Do you?

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