By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
You may not know the name of Hays native Buck Arnhold, but you probably have seen his work.
A 40-year career as a commercial and fine artist has included painting portraits of such icons as Joe Montana and Marcus Allen and painting hundred of sign, billboards and murals.
Arnhold will return to Hays on Friday for the exhibition “Buck Arnhold Comes Home” during the Fall Art Walk at the Mad Matter Frame Shop.
Arnhold, 65, remembers drawing from at least the age of 5. His father told him stories about his grandfather painting pictures of horses on doors of barn lofts, and Arnhold gravitated to horses and western scenes early on.
He said he always wanted to be an artist or perhaps a pro football player.
However, Arnhold’s burgeoning talent was almost squashed early in his school career. His mother wanted him to go to St. Joseph’s Military Academy, which is now Thomas More Prep-Marian. St. Joseph’s did not have an art program.
In fact, he was discouraged from taking fine art at all. At that time, boys took mechanical drawing. He said the mechanical drawing teacher called him a sissy for wanting to pursue art — something that stuck with him for many years.
Buck’s older brother worked on their mother over the summer, and finally convinced her to allow Buck to go to Hays High.
“Hays High had a really good art department,” he said. “It really cemented the fact I wanted to be an artist.”
Arnhold’s parents were strict, so when his peers were going out in high school, he spent hours in his room drawing. He said it made him a better artist.
Arnhold went on to study art at Fort Hays State University in 1970, where he received a bachelor’s, master’s and master’s of fine arts degrees in art. For about 12 years, Arnhold had local sign company, before moving to Kansas City.
In Kansas City, he worked for the Ace Sign Company, where he was assigned early on to take on some great heights.
He was painting billboards 80 to 100 feet in the air. The first time he had to go on top of a billboard, Kansas City had a cold snap, and it was 10 below. In order to get to the top of the billboard, you had to climb a narrow ladder attached to the pole. When the painters did those billboards, the first person up had to carry a 100 foot rope, so the supplies could be hoisted up to the sign.
“It was windy, and everything was waiving,” he said. “That first time was rough.”
Arnhold’s company was also involved in painting the Arrowhead letters at the Chiefs’ stadium. He was hoisted up with a 100-foot boom truck. The boom was not long enough, so he swung over to the sign another 15 feet on a wooden seat suspended with ropes with a 5-gallon bucket of paint, a roller and brush.
Another public piece he painted was the Boulevard Brewing Co. smokestack, which the brew taps for the brewery are now modeled.
After painting a picture of Bo Jackson, he came to the attention of Derrick Thomas and the Chiefs.
He painted a banner for Thomas that would hang in Arrowhead Stadium. From there, other players asked him to paint their banners.
From the very large billboards to the very small, Arnhold also painted players’ likenesses on signed commemorative footballs that were auctioned for charity.
Although the painting of the athletes were done from photos, during this time, he met many of the Chiefs players and other sports icons at charity events, including Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Nolan Ryan and Mark McGwire.
You may have seen Arnhold’s work other places in Kansas City and Hays.
He has done large murals in Price Chopper grocery stores all over the country, including murals in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, where he covered 600 feet of wall with pharmacy, farmer’s market and dairy scenes.
Local work you might know includes the Indian in the Hays High gym, the “Where the Wild Things Are” mural in the children’s library at the Hays Public Library and a 16-foot mural of a sunrise at Forsyth Library at Fort Hays State University.
Arnhold said he thought his career has been well spent.
“The difference was I stuck with it. A lot people have talent, but for one reason or the other they didn’t stick with it. There are a lot of years where you go, ‘I don’t know if I should have.’ But I kept with it and stayed with it,” he said. “I was actually able to retire from Associated Groceries as an artist. I got a pension and a 401. I did’t have to be a teacher to be an artist or sell on the corner.
“I was doing art every day. I had a brush or a pencil in my hand in Kansas City probably 12 or 16 hours a day. If it wasn’t at work, it was at home.”
Arnhold still keeps busy working on murals at schools across the Kansas City area.
He has painted murals in 19 of the 35 Olathe schools, including seven murals since Christmas.
All the years as a commercial painter helped Arnhold not only paint quickly, but also helped him develop skills to scale up smaller drawings.
He recently finished a 30-foot mural of Hound Dogs for a local school in five days.
He may be retired, but Arnhold has never stopped drawing. He always has a painting or drawing in front of him. He still loves Westerns and sometimes freezes a movie in mid-scene so he can sketch Clint Eastwood or Lee Marvin.
His favorite subject recently has been his grandson, Kellan, 5. Portraits of Kellan will be included in his show on Friday along with examples of his sports work, western scenes and landscapes, and a portrait of John F. Kennedy he did in the sixth grade.
Arnhold will also do a portrait demonstration during the Fall Art Walk Friday night.