By Susan Shinn Turner

For the Salisbury Post

RALEIGH — Bob Timberlake is not succinct.

Which is why his conversation with Raleigh author Eddie Nickens on Wednesday evening ran well past the 9 p.m. advertised conclusion.

No matter. The 125 admirers in attendance hung on every word.

The Lexington artist is celebrating his 80th year and more than 50 years as a realist painter. That’s a lot to talk about.

Timberlake and Nickens — a college classmate of Timberlake’s sons, Ed and Dan — collaborated on Timberlake’s recent book, “Letter to Home.” Their chat covered the book — including art that’s never before been published — the start of Timberlake’s career, and just about everything in between.

And stories. Lots and lots of stories.

That’s not surprising, because Timberlake – a fine storyteller — feels like he tells a story each time he picks up his brushes, he said.

Walter magazine and Great Outdoor Provision Co. served as sponsors for the evening, which included drinks, dinner and Timberlake’s appearance. It took place at City Market in downtown Raleigh.

The evening was a great success, said Sherry Sink, product development manager for the Bob Timberlake Gallery.

“We ran out of bags,” Sink said.

But not books, although Timberlake signed dozens during the course of the evening.

“We always bring plenty of books,” Sink said.

Not only is Timberlake an author, but he designed the most successful line of furniture ever. He recently donated the prototype chest from the World of Bob Timberlake collection to the N.C. Museum of History.

Ken Howard, the museum’s director, and Michael Ausbon, decorative arts curator, were on hand Wednesday evening. The chest was also on display. The piece is an important part of the history of furniture in North Carolina, Ausbon noted.

After a meal of pulled pork — an homage to Timberlake’s hometown — collard greens, corn pudding, sweet potato hushpuppies, biscuits and apple crisp, Timberlake and Nickens engaged in a wide-ranging conversation.

Timberlake’s art, Nickens said, has always been about the story.

“Everything he has known and loved goes into every piece of work,” Nickens said of Timberlake, who’s still painting prolifically.

The new book, he said, “is Bob’s letter to all of us.”

Timberlake’s paintings often start on an envelope or a crumpled napkin. Indeed, the plans for the chest were sketched on a piece of yellow legal paper.

The book, Nickens said, represents a window into the artist’s world.

Timberlake began his remarks by noting that his wife, Kay, whom he called “my better three-fourths,” was home baby-sitting a great-granddaughter.

“I’m just having fun all the time,” he said. “Doing a painting is like reading the best book you’ve ever read.”

Furniture, he said, has always been a part of his life. His family owned a furniture store, and when he was 15, he won a national award for creating a Pennsylvania Dutch chest. It took some 350 hours of labor, and he won $100 for his efforts and a trip to Dearborn, Michigan.

The chest remains on display at his gallery in Lexington.

Timberlake said he never dreamed he’d be involved in the furniture industry, although many of his classmates did just that.

“We were a furniture town,” he said of Lexington.

From a young age, he worked and hunted. He left his family’s gas company in 1970 to paint after being encouraged by Andrew Wyeth.

“It’s not our talents but our choices in life that lead us through,” he said. “Choices came along that someone presented to me.”

Nickens said Timberlake has developed a “mini canon” of art from Bald Head Island, where he’s visited for 65 years. He and his wife were part of the restoration of the lighthouse there, Nickens said.

Turning from the coast to the mountains, the two discussed Timberlake’s painting “Ray’s Place” in Banner Elk. The house belonged to Ray Hicks, an Appalachian storyteller.

“He was a character — a real character,” Timberlake noted.

Nickens called the painting “a historic document.”

“There will never be another Ray Hicks,” he said. “Bob’s work is beautiful and wonderful — but the stories they contain.”

Another example is a painting of his studio that was originally a barn built in 1809 by the Shoaf family. Mrs. Henry Shoaf saved the barn from being burned after the Civil War. Timberlake told the story of the mother of 12 standing up to Union soldiers.

“They walked away,” Timberlake said, saying he relives that story through the painting.

The two also discussed a painting of a young child named Wanda standing on a porch.

“She’s sort of coming out of the dark into the light,” Nickens said.

Timberlake pointed out that her left toe hugged the step.

“Do I dare?” Nickens said she seems to be asking herself in leaving the porch. Timberlake did the same thing, he said, every night after supper, leaving his wife and three children to paint in the basement.

“Bob asked, ‘Do I dare?’” Nickens said. “And he did.”

The Bob Timberlake Gallery is at 1714 E. Center St. in Lexington. To learn more, visit www.bobtimberlake.com.