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ELIZABETH BETTENDORFIn back of a lovely two-story home, an artist soldiers on, blessed with model neighbors and a precise talent.
GRAY GABLES - Nobody knew exactly what type of artist Rick Reeves was when he moved with his family to this cozy South Tampa neighborhood more than a decade ago.
Now his neighbors practically beg to put on scratchy wool costumes and pose for his historic military paintings.
And usually in Reeves' attractive, albeit very suburban South Tampa yard.
"It started out as a "Can you help me out here?' sort of thing," Reeves recalls. "Then it turned into something they really enjoyed doing."
Neighbor Bubba Ellis has played soldier for the Union and Confederate armies and the Spanish American and Revolutionary wars.
One time, Ellis' old black Lab, Bob, even made a cameo.
So have plenty of other Gray Gables neighbors, including Ellis' brother, Jamie, a doctor and engineer down the street, and several of the neighbor kids. Ellis' brother-in-law hung around so much that Reeves made him a soldier, too.
"I've been a World War II chaplain," explains Ellis, 49, a solid-looking fellow whose face might have been plucked from any battlefield in any century. "I've even been a pirate."
Reeves, a nationally known illustrator who paints highly realistic battlefield scenes, works from a studio he built off his family's two-story traditional home in this early Tampa subdivision off Kennedy Boulevard.
"I love this neighborhood," he says. "It's a great place. People buy houses as an investment in here and then end up staying."
The Reeveses paid $170,000 for their house 12 years ago, when it was new and the market was down.
"It was a spec house and the owner had a problem selling," Reeves recalls. The house was close to 2,000 square feet, but they added 1,000 square feet a few years ago to extend the downstairs, open up the kitchen and allow for another bedroom and bath.
The addition gave them more room for their children, Katie, 14, Jackson, 12, and Molly, 8. Wife Cheryl, a kindergarten teacher at Crestwood Elementary School in Town 'N Country, helped decorate the spaces, which incorporate both primitive and traditional antiques, lots of books, framed family photos, and cool Florida stuff including old Seminole Indian dolls and a Seminole child's shirt displayed as art.
The interior of the house is stunning, with honey-colored hardwood floors and a decor of pale greens, yellows and blues. It's filled with a collection of lovely antique furniture, much of which belonged to his wife's family. Oriental rugs, historic Florida artwork and a cherished cache of Sunshine State souvenirs invite an afternoon of lingering.
But visitors are equally drawn to Reeves' 300-square-foot studio that features a big walk-in closet, wardrobe racks and trunks heaped with the fashions of war. He even collects cool props: Russian cigarette packages from World War II, French soldiers' bread pouches, Civil War-era drinking cups, hob-nailed shoes and World War I backpacks.
He collects guns and muskets, swords and bayonets, and hundreds of books about war and history, as well as a stash of field guides identifying flowers, trees and architecture.
"Everything must be right in a battlefield scene," he explains. "A tree line, the style of building. This is very important to the people I sell to. More than the subject itself, they like to be able to identify all the different types of equipment."
Reeves, revered by collectors for his academic precision and commitment to historical accuracy, must collect what his subjects wear and carry.
"I've got all original equipment from World War I to the present day," he says. "For the rest, I buy from good companies that specialize in museum quality reproductions."
Ellis and his brother, Jamie, who co-own an office furniture supply business, have donned britches, tri-corn hats, riding boots and ammo packs.
Ellis has posed atop garbage cans and sawhorses gussied up to look like real mounts.
Reeves usually gives his subjects a limited edition print for their efforts.
Typically, he's commissioned by the U.S. Army, private collectors and veterans groups. Sometimes, if the military event is recent, he paints from a photograph of the scene without the help of his model neighbors. Occasionally he works from life, as he did for the Army's 29th Infantry Division, sketching Humvees, tanks, ambulances, helicopters and soldiers at a military base.
Reeves' work that isn't commissioned is sold in galleries. It also appears in specialty magazines read by collectors. A serial numbered and signed print sells for about $150.
Reeves, who grew up in Beach Park and majored in commercial art at Florida State University, now goes to work in Bermuda shorts and sandals. He usually spends eight hours a day in his studio. When he was starting out, he traveled the art show circuit, but gave it up for more lucrative prospects. A history buff, he began researching what else he could do.
"I realized right away that I couldn't make a living selling one painting at a time," he says. "I knew that I had to look for a niche, find one thing that I could be known for."
As for cajoling his neighbors to pose, it has been an ongoing topic of conversation in a Norman Rockwell kind of neighborhood known for block parties and front-porch gatherings.
Lifelong friendships have formed as a result.
And the faces along his street are forever immortalized, though he admits that's starting to change.
"Some of us are getting a little old now," he says. "I mean, these soldiers were really very young."
So who's putting on the scratchy wool uniforms and posing now?
Reeves just laughs.
"The neighbors' kids."