Painter Gerald Roberts is a Northwestern artist known for his unique Southwestern style.

The Central Whidbey resident creates both austere portraits of Native Americans and what he calls “far out” paintings combining traditional Western images with unexpected details, such as an Indian with a cellular phone.

Roberts, a retired commercial designer, was having a lot of success with his artwork, winning awards and selling pieces to collectors all over the country.

Then the unthinkable happened. The right-handed artist fell in his studio Jan. 1 and broke his right shoulder. He was left with very limited use of his painting hand, at least for the time being.

But he was undaunted. He immediately went to work teaching himself to paint and draw with his left hand, which is something he never attempted before.

“The results were dramatic, a bit more impressionistic,” said Roberts, “but definitely worthy of a signature.”

Roberts recently unveiled a couple of his left-handed paintings, which some may even prefer to his more realistic-style right-handed works. There’s “Brave Buffalo,” a painting of a Hunkpapa medicine man, and “Fox Society Soldier.”

The new paintings are signed backwards — a perfect mirror image — to signify the use of his opposite hand.

While he’s not an Indian, Roberts said he became interested in painting Native Americans and Old West-inspired scenes when his wife, Nora, discovered that she was related to a Lakota Indian. They started investigating the culture, going to pow-wows and other ceremonies, and fell in love with the people.

“I like what the old Indian culture is about,” he said. “They treat the Earth with reverence. They don’t take much more than they need to survive.”

Also, Roberts said he enjoys the sense of humor among the Indians he’s met. And they like him. Roberts said the Native Americans enjoy his art and the interest he has in them. They don’t feel he’s stealing their culture, he said.

In fact, Roberts said some of his best selling pieces are the cartoonish images that juxtapose traditional Indian scenes — like an Indian in a headdress on a pony — with contemporary images. One of his favorites is “Pony Espresso,” which is an Indian going to an espresso stand in a teepee.

Many of Roberts’ best paintings, both right-handed and left-handed, capture the stark beauty of the Indian people. In researching his subject matter, Roberts said he’s found how the facial bone structure of one tribe of Native Americans can be very different from another, and he’s become adept at representing the differences in his art. It’s particularly evident in his painting of an Apache warrior, “Naiche, son of Cochise,” and the “Cheyenne Dog Soldier.”

Roberts works with oils, acrylics and colored pencils. The way he crafts his paintings is also rather unique. He creates sketches of the scene, which is often based on photographs he’s found or taken himself. Then he scans the sketches into the computer and works with the images on the screen, sometimes adding color.

Once he has what he wants, Roberts prints out a copy of the image and uses it as a model for his painting. He often turns his paintings upside-down while he’s working and checks them with a mirror.

“I’m checking for balance and depth,” he explained, looking at a work in progress through a mirror.

“Now my brain is seeing it fresh again.”

Roberts is currently going through physical therapy for his right arm, which he said is helping quite a bit. After recovery from his broken shoulder, Roberts plans to continue to paint using both hands.

Roberts is the founder of the Northwest’s annual Spirit of the West art show and exhibit. His work has will be featured in a two-page, full-color spread of a new coffee table book, called Northwest Artists. The book features 200 notable Northwest Artists and should be available in April.

His work is also on display at Seattle Artists Gallery and Artists Co-Op in Langley. His Web site, which features samples of his work, is at www.geraldrobertsartist.com.