By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Charles Freitag is known as a tractor artist. For years, he has been one of the most celebrated rural artists around, and on March 17, he presented at the 2010 John Deere Memorabilia Conference, the Gathering of the Green.

“I’m known as the tractor guy,” Freitag said. “I paint them, and not the kind you see driving down the road.

“John Deere’s first plow was invented in 1837. Artwork in John Deere was done with a purpose to promote everything, to promote an idea.” Without photography, all of the early literature required an artist’s hand. “Now, computers do everything, they have taken over art,” Freitag added.

“When I was at one of the first Two-Cylinder Expos, there was no artwork on any tractors, with the exception of the Waterloo Boy.”
The first prominent artist that he said promoted Deere was Walter Haskell Hinton, from San Francisco. “When you think John Deere artwork, I look at him as the Norman Rockwell of John Deere. That is how I think of Walter Haskell Hinton,” Freitag said. “His work always tells a story.”

Hinton started painting for Deere in the 1930s and worked until 1945. “He painted mostly on canvas,” Freitag said, adding that he prefers Masonite.

In most of the paintings, JD was portrayed in a heroic light, and Chris Boyens of John Deere said some of the pictures credited Deere with his contribution to settling the prairie.

In Hinton’s day, Freitag said there were no photographs for subject comparison. “They had to rely on their memory,” he explained.
For a painting, an artist would have to literally stage the scene, sketch it and then paint it. “Not everyone had cameras,” he said. “Back then they thought it was unethical to use photographs. For me, almost all equipment and people are photographed at some time.”

From Hinton’s day, Freitag said there wasn’t really any one artist who stood out for JD, although Roy Bostrum is quite famous for his Johnny Tractor books artwork.

“In the 1980s, tractor collectors really got into them,” Freitag said. “All of a sudden, something changed and farmers and business people were going back to find their fathers’ and grandfathers’ tractors.

“Then they started restoring them. I came on the scene around 1994, and John Deere collecting by that time was huge.”

At this time, Terry Redlin, from Minnesota, was the most popular artist in the country; Freitag also recognized the artwork of Neil Anderson. “For around five years, lots of artists experimented with John Deere art. I got started right out of art school.”

It was during the 1990s that he said that there was a revival of artwork. “There are a handful of us that paint on canvas and boards. John Deere has been one of the nicest companies I have worked with.”

With his background of working on the family farm, painting tractors was a natural extension for Freitag. He hooked up with the Two-Cylinder Club and has painted several pictures for it and others, as well. Over the years Freitag has painted a variety of pictures, but said his favorite is “Autumn Memories,” which he added, “happens to have two of my kids in there.

“In each of my paintings, I try to convey my fond childhood memories of life on the family farm,” he pointed out.
Details about his work can be found on his website, at www.freitagart.com