randallbart lett  

Born and raised in Mobile, AL, Randall spent many of his weekends hunting in the swamps of south Alabama, fishing from the pier on Dauphin Island, and navigating a canoe on the rivers and creeks of Mobile and Baldwin County. During the weekdays, he showed up for high school, but he wasn’t really interested in learning. But by the grace of God, he somehow finished high school and made his way to Auburn University, where he studied industrial design.

 

His 3rd grade teacher asked Randall to draw a house on the blackboard, and he drew the house using a perspective technique. That is what he saw in his mind. The teacher was looking for a "flat" front view. This teacher planted the seed for the love of art.

 

Now retired from Auburn University as a professor of industrial design, he spent most of his career teaching and designing products for mass production. In product design, sketching is how the initial product concepts are communicated. Randall constantly encouraged his students about the importance of sketching as a problem-solving and communication tool.

 

As a full-time design educator, he didn’t take time to paint, but in the fall of 2014, Randall’s interest in painting was rekindled, and he spent late nights reawakening the passion to paint. Watercolors have always intrigued him, and he began experimenting with different techniques and styles by painting landscapes, especially lakes, rivers, streams, and seascapes.