Patience, precision and a whole lot of practice have earned a West Virginia artist his third trip to the White House. Steve Cassle of Dunbar was commissioned to paint three official White House ornaments for the Christmas tree used in the Blue Room. In keeping with this year s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, artists from each state were commissioned to paint specific scenes on the softball-sized ornaments sent to them.
Cassle s challenge: Sandstone Falls, rafters and a blue heron. I jumped at the chance to do this, even though I knew doing three of these would be quite a challenge, Cassle said. Painting on a perfect sphere is tricky, and you don t get extra ornaments to practice on. The ones you get are the ones you re expected to use. Maintaining the right balance in the picture takes a keen eye and a steady hand.
You have to keep that straight line, which is almost impossible to do on a sphere, and you have to think of how the ornament will look from several angles because you don t know where it will be placed on the tree. It s very tricky all the way around, he said. The White House contacted NPS superintendents who, in turn, had to find the artists. The NPS contacted Tamarack general manager Cheryl Hartley, who immediately thought of Cassle for the Mountain State s entry.
Although he is now product development specialist at Tamarack, Cassle was not employed there when he received the commission for the ornaments. They approached me about the ornaments about a year ago. I had not even applied for this job at the time. I really owe Tamarack a huge vote of thanks for recommending me to do the painting. It s quite an honor, Cassle said.