Blevins told the Springfield News-Sun that a passion for sports led him to painting a wide variety of subjects ranging from boxers in a ring to stadiums and athletes in action.
“I’ve always been active in sports, and to me, it’s just a fun subject to do. There’s a lot of action,” he said. “It’s also colorful with the uniforms and everything. It’s just exciting to do that.”
Throughout his career, Blevins has regularly focused on Ohio’s many teams. But it was a painting of the Ohio State University stadium that cemented his connection to the Buckeye state’s athletic culture.
“I really got started in 2002 when I did a portrait of the Ohio State stadium, which was licensed and put into stores all around Columbus,” Blevins said. “That’s what got me motivated to really continue on.”
Since then, Blevins has captured the OSU-Michigan rivalry and famous players, as well as had many of his works signed by the people he has portrayed. That list includes members of the Cincinnati Bengals and many Buckeye legends.
“Probably most exciting for me is working with Archie Griffin. He signed some of my paintings and just to see his face and his reaction to them was exciting for me,” Blevins said about Griffin, a former professional football running back who played with the Bengals.
The painter finds pride in the fact that his work captures important moments in Ohio sports history.
“That’s what’s exciting to me, to know that hopefully these things will still be around in 100 years,” he said. “I just completed one of Pete Rose smacking his hit number 4,192, and it’s a painting of him at bat, swinging the bat, sliding into third base, several images of him on one painting. It’s 4 foot by 5 foot. Just doing those paintings and trying to capture that action is exciting for me.”
According to the Ohioan, capturing the face of the person he paints is the most important part of his process. Football is currently one of his favorite subjects to cover.
“You can get a lot of players in the picture you can create a lot of action,” Blevins shared. “I’ve got several of individual players, but I still try to capture that action and movement.”
The artist said he tries to choose players who are either already in the Hall of Fame or long-established members of a team. Meeting them after a work is complete is something he finds highly rewarding.
“Getting to meet the players, getting to talk with them, they know nothing about art but there is so much similarity between doing the art and the actual sports. You know it takes dedication, perseverance, practice, practice, practice. You know they go hand in hand,” he said.
The artist now joins the ranks of Stephen Holland, Ernie Barnes, Leroy Neiman and others on the walls of the American Sport Art Museum and Archives.
“We’re talking the top artists in the world,” Blevins said. “It’s just kind of overwhelming to think that I was at that caliber, which I never believed I was.”
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