Art, Nature & Soul #96

It was with a sense of urgency , I felt compelled to to paint this piece. If you look closely you can find these 13 words hidden within: compassion, sympathy, equality, empathy, freedom, love, hope, peace, faith, charity, justice, liberty, privacy & diversity. These are the values of the U.S.A. , but you’ll need to search hard because they’re disappearing quickly. The white, separating the red & blue, symbolizes independence & unity. The 18k gold leaf a symbol of greed as it is consumed by the red. The black charcoal a symbol of the erasures used to cancel the words, the civility of a nation. There are 50 stars in oil pastel representing the 50 united state, all unique, but bound by a covenant, a contract if you will, The Constitution of the U.S.A.. crafted and finely honed to protect a nation and all its people. But it is currently being circumvented by the powers that be as rule of law is side stepped, without guard rails or checks and balances to guide and protect us.

Every fiber of my being is screaming "Danger, Danger Will Robinson". In the past few weeks I've noticed that the information highway has been hijacked by techies and AI. What once was, is no longer. Most will not even notice it, but in some very subtle and subconscious ways the information has been deleted, omitted, or created anew. This to create the narrative needed to control you, it's a money and power hungry grab. A disinformation scheme has been implemented to dismantle and disable us. Most people are literal minded and will accept the information unchecked, only the critical minded  will even notice the changes taking place. If you all take a moment to rewind 10 years ago...you'll at minimum agree that we , for the most part, were able to work well and play with others, unconditionally. This elementary, yes simple concept of civility, is being erased, in favor of a culture of hate & fear, based on information and a narrative that serves the elite, not humanity. Most information is being manipulated, take a moment to research, look for the hard copy info and think because we are all on the verge of  "That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!" What we imagine is.  “The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings,” Erwin Schrödinger.    So "don't blink" and imagine this instead. 

"Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world" John Lennon

Give this some thought and understand what this means at the

more basic & its most sublime...

The one thing everything in the universe has in common is that it is made up of matter & energy, which are fundamentally interconnected and subject to the laws of physics; essentially, everything is composed of the same building blocks, just arranged differently.

WE, ALL LIFE, ARE ORGANIC ALGORITHMS RECOGNIZING MATHEMATICAL PATTERNS OF FRACTALS x CHAOS, MADE OF THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MATTER & ENERGY OF SYNCHRONICITY IN THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM...stardust be it named, the universe or God and apparently the unbearable oneness of being...

“You cannot conceive the many without the one...The study of the unit is among those that lead the mind on and turn it to the vision of reality.”

Plato

and now a warning from, Werner Herzog, who said: "Dear America: You are waking up as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches."

Be mindful, carry on & have a good day...

Erasures for the Red, White & Blue 30x30” oil on canvas

Art, Nature & Soul #93

I’ve been painting these Mini-Me’s, for almost a decade, most are in a 12”x12” gesso board format. I have a drying rack/wood box that holds about 20 that makes traveling with them easy. The immediacy and directness make them about as honest as it gets, there’s simply no time to over think them, which for me makes them especially attractive to paint. I allow myself a special grace & fearlessness, playing with color, texture and composition on them.

From top, left to right, my inspirations were in translating the vibe into paint in my own expressive way. Some were painted on location, others from a photo. The first is a farm set off in the distance in Illinois, #2, is Ptown, front and center, from the Atlantic ocean, with the Pilgrim monument towering over the scene, when we’re visiting we stay very near it, #3 can be any road but this is what it looked like as we entered Colorado, #4 the park across the street from my home at sunset, a film we watched provided inspiration for #5, #6 is mid fall at the park I walk daily with the pups, #7 was painted at Nambe Falls, NM, #8 after seeing Echo and the Bunnymen perform at the Riviera in downtown Chicago, I snap a quick photo which provided an interesting take on a nocturne and ambient light, #9 was painted at Escalante Trail, at Cerllios State Park in Santa Fe NM. Like I say, whatever I’m doing and thinking about is what I paint. My artworks are a chronology of my life happenings.

These pieces provide me with a way to experiment with color, texture, composition and all the design elements utilized in my larger artworks. They’re represent, in part, my continuing education. They can be framed or set on an easel as is and they make wonderful gifts. Several people have acquired 3 or 4 at a time to create groupings, 2 have done a 4 seasons composition with them. I know where I’ve painted each of them and what my inspiration was, but I love when someone says one, it triggers a memory of one of their happy places and they make it their own.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief insight to my world & artwork. As always your questions & thoughts are welcome.

Richard

Mini Me’s 2024

Art, Nature & Soul #88

This was the first time I built & created one of my contemporary abstracts/ absrtact realism pieces in public. It’s usually a more solitary endeavor. It was an interesting challenge and exercise. I had several conversations about my process along the way, so here’s the inside story.

I had a very large canvas created, so big I couldn’t get it home in my vehicle. So I began, the first step was to put 8 layers of acrylic paint and inerference colors down, a while back. First coat was in a rusty iron oxide followed by several olive mixed with a gloss medium & varnish that’s multi directionally applied while water is splashed at it and tactfully removed just before it dries. to create a pattern, somewhat of a controlled chaos. Once this has been done in an organic drip & splatter way, the rhythm of the piece is there, determined, and just waiting for me too listern to its next direction. It was decided I’d do a live demo on building an abstract painting it over the last week or two of the event. The stage was set and I had been playing around with a thought & idea for several months.

I knew theme was to be figurative in nature. I began looking through photos of people, at first it was going to be 3, but soon after I landed on 5 and that it would be in an outdoor setting. Eventually I landed on the idea of a wilderness rock climbing, asysiphis thing of sorts, idea and created a compostion in my head. A lot of the preliminary work goes into the thinking out of the compostion then the approach that will best convey my idea. The thing about contemporary abstract realism is I know what my vision is, but never know for sure what others will see. Fortunatey, I love when they are engaged in a work and create their own stories & narratives surrounding it.

I started early the first day so I could concentrate and be sure I got the intitial form in place as desired, this was crucial for me. It was accomplished in prussian blue, indigo blue & white oil paint, with palette knife, scratching tool & tissues. The next session was to give more form, color and texture, again using a variety of palette knives & scraffitto. Scraffitto is my fasvorite part and its utilized from beginning to end of my process to reveal the previous layers. Session 3 involves ebony pencil primarily, where as words, symbols (where I add the infinity sign that apeears in all these type artworks) & line are given throughout the compostion. Session 4 involves scribbling in oil pastel over the entirity of the piece to give movement, dimension & mass, near the end I do more scratching & scraffitto in areas that appear too solid. I like my color broken so your eye in forced to average the information in your minds eye, from a distance, but appears as mini abstract pieces close up. The 5th session includes a careful and selct redoing of all of the above, wheras toward the end I put in 5 blocks of color to help create the focal area. The 6th session is mostly lots of scraffitto to erase and some amount of oil pastel to add back on to give the desired definition to the piece. The 7th sitting or standing was giveing selected broken line to the piece, more scraffitto and finally adding the 18k gold leaf. The 8th and final day is adding and taking away from the piece until it says complete. Along the way I’m constantly looking at the piece, taking photos and accessing it to see where it leads me, until I sign it and its completed, finis’.

Titles for me begin at the start. At first, after the acrylic layes I thought ECHOE, then soon after The Sublime & the Rediculous. As I analized the figues, there meaning to me and what I was intending to convey, which is the universiality, the connectedness of life, & the oneness of all, I thought LGBTQ, as its PRIDE month thing. I dismissed it as too on the nosey and moved on to the five elements: earth, eind, fire, water & metal, but honed in on the 5 senses: vision,. hearing, smell, taste & hearing, closer still but not it. I began to think about mythology and the Muses, but they’re 7 or 9 of them, finally I figured it out and decided on, 5 GRACES: gratitude, resilence, aspiration, courage & empathy. That all happened as I intially blocked in the 5 figures and this single thought guided me to its completion.

One person asked, “where do you get your ideas & inspiration”, I replied , I have more ideas, than time.”. The thing is that how I live my life connects the dots of inspiration and I free asociate my way to the next thing. My daily walks, the music I listen to and seek, the films & theatrer, then I’ll be reading a book and and an idea strikes me, or something says and sometimes it’s an acccumulation of all of the above plus some that I cannot explain. I have a message, a life, a world view and I want to convey my thoughts on it, through words and pictures, so I do.

And so I repeat…WE, ALL LIFE, ARE ORGANIC ALGORITHMS RECOGNIZING MATHEMATICAL PATTERNS OF FRACTALS x CHAOS, MADE OF THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MATTER & ENERGY OF SYNCHRONICITY IN THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM...stardust be it named, the universe or God and apparently the unbearable oneness of being...

‘5 Graces’ 57”x63” mixed media

5 Graces

Art, Nature & Soul #87

Proud Fox Gallery & Frame Shop

Presents

Featured Artist

Richard Sperry

SO THIS IS 60~
A CELEBRATION IN ART
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Da3iyrVrU&t=211s 

(click on link to watch video)

"Art, whether abstract or representational, like the night sky, invites us to imagine, participate and create stories. As we view and gaze endlessly, subtle changes in our perception and vision transform what we see, at the speed of light, in our mind's eye." ~Richard Sperry

“Richard Sperry, an American artist residing in Saint Charles, Illinois, paints his life as he experiences it. He defies categorization as merely an abstract painter, a landscapist, or a figurative artist. Instead, he finds inspiration in both internal and external mechanisms, compelling him to depict his thoughts, emotions, experiences, and existence itself through his art.

Sperry's paintings serve as a personal diary, catalog, and chronology of his life's events, reflecting nearly six decades of personal and artistic growth. Each of the contemporary/abstract pieces are meticulously crafted, starting with an acrylic paint base and then layered with oil paint, oil pastel, ebony pencil, charcoal, oil stick, and 18k gold paint and leaf. The presence of the 18k leaf and an infinity symbol across his artworks serves as his signature, a trademark that distinguishes his work.

Through his unique artistic process and autobiographical expressions, Richard Sperry invites viewers into his intimate world, where every stroke carries the weight of his life's journey and the depth of his artistic vision.” -Circle Foundation for the Arts

An exhibition of 60 artworks will be on display throughout,

May 8-June 8, 2024

Saturday, June 8 is the ART RAMBLE, stop by meet the artist, 9-5pm.

Come on by, Enter to Win~ a $500. Value

‘Morning Meadow’ 14”x14” framed oil

Plus, you’ll find 1000’s of artworks by 100’s of artists in all genres & styles on display for your enjoyment & consideration.

60 pieces for your enjoyment & consideration

some of my favorites to have created.

Enter to Win, in person, at the gallery,

A 500$ Value

Morning Light 14”x14” framed oil

Art, Nature & Soul #86

We were in Key West Florida earlier this year, our third time. When we came upon this area at Fort Zachary Taylor. It was a corner where the fort and beach areas merged. What a great find. My first thoughts seeing the people swimming around and playing on the rocks was, Henry Tuke Scott, I must paint this. Later I thought Turner. We hung out, for half the day, and I took a dozen or so photo captured references, to give it the Sperry treatment, at a later time.

The scene before me was playful and romantic. A beautiful sunny day, boats saling, birds flying & boys swimming, posing & playing on the rocks, as if nothing else exists, lost in their own world. Thinking our a composition, I used about 6 of the photos to create and give direction. the beach umbrella, the palms, the sailboat & pelicans, pointed the direction to the main show and focal point. Once the compositions in my head, I’m ready to go.

My process generally begins with a complimentery color tonal splash, acrylic base coat. Sometimes I do a compositional sketch, as was the case here. Then I work very quickly, working wet in wet to block in the scene, beginning with the sky, building and moving it forward to the areas of interest. I tend towards painting in a more painterly imressionistic way as opposed to an illustrated one. The figures on the rocks suggest a posture & pose without revealing much else. That’s so you can fill in the blanks and put yourself there, as intended. More than a voyear you are now a participant and putting yourself there with those you want to be there with.

I usually take a photo of the pieces I’m wotking on to access them from another perspective. Then if I need to enhance this that or the other thing I usually do the next day or two. Most are completed wet in wet in a single sitting though. I left the figures more none descript accept for the playful joyous poses that were happening, so you the audience, can put yourself in the scene.

I went a little more primitive and post impressionist in this piece to create a more whimsicle take in which I Am, & We Are and everyones included.

Thank you, as always your questions & comments are welcome,

Richard

Boys on the Rocks 40”x30” oil

progressions

ono of my photo captures in Key West

Art, Nature & Soul #84

I recently posted this on one of my social media pages.

“I was asked to describe my artwork in 3 words for an upcoming art magazine feature in March. I did, but I wondered how you would?”

My answer to ‘Circle Foundation For the Arts’ was simply, “chronology of happenings”, as I paint my life, as it unfolds, in whatever form it takes.

I knew that the question, as posed, that some would interupt it as me asking them to find 3 words they would use to describe my artwork with, while others still, perhap’s artists, would answer it as if to describe their own artwork. The post received a really great response, one very thoughtful & intuitive response about my work, was from MaryEllen B. “this is a hard one … i keep going to art phrases … like impressionist but more. I got thinking deconstructive impressionist abstract. there!” Another was somewhat more ambiguous, as to whether he was speaking to my art or his, although the intention seemed clear, the double edged sword, when he wrote, “Better than yours!” Marvin M., to which all I could do was lol and click on the laughing emoji. He was a portrait artist, by profession, pretty standard quality photo realism from what I observed.

In any case I had several thoughts.

First and foremost, I do not compete with others, only myself, for my individual vision & personal best. Secondly, having and being a positive supportive voice to others, including creatives, in this world, is a rare and important thing, I choose to be.

Then I had this thought. That’s like saying English is better than French, Spanish, German or Italian, etc. Or even more so, that petroglyphs are better than hieroglyphs, or more aptly that English is better than petroglyphs, which makes no sense. As we are all speaking in different visual languages, as artists, to begin with. Communication is usually directed to a certain audience, with hopes of reaching others outside ones group.

Personaly I seldom think in terms of good & bad, better or worse, except when I’m gaging the direction of my own prolific output. I do have my likes, but having spent, near 40 years, selling other artists work to a large audience with varied taste and range of clients, I understand this one very important thing. There’s an audience for most all art and the degree of success with any of it, for any artist, like life, has more variables than can be counted on both hands.

Importantly, being open to and having an appreciation for things in their context, super cool, by my standards. Asking questions and taking the time to learn, know & understand anothers capabilities & chosen direction is a unique, rare and beautiful thing, that can open up ones world plus provide an appreciation.

As I’ve indicated and spoken to many times, as a child and young man, my primary interests were in cartoon & portrait work, which I did. From doodling cartoons in ink pen of myself, friends & teachers to doing more realistic portratis in pencil, pen & ink and soft-pastel, some of which were commissioned and sold. As I grew as a person and artist I began to want and lean to the more impressionistic, expressionistic & abstract. While I still do portrait commissions, they have a definate slant to these above disciplines, as well as my own vision of the person or persons personality.

Here’s a self portrait I painted about 35 years ago. I was and am a huge Universal monster & Hammer film fan. So, I took a photo of myself and morphed it with Frankenstien, Dracula & the Wolfman. While it’s not perfect. It’s not bad for a primarily self taught artist. What a great time I had painting this one. It’s in oil, on fine portrait linen & in an old ornate Gothic frame. It still hangs in my home studio, really, sincerely, yes indeed, it does. Here’s another from this time period I painted of a friend, around the same time, as well.

Which should illustrate that how I currently choose to express myself is based on an acumulation of infromation, knowledge & experience gathered, honed & refined.

As always your comments & questions are welcome,

Thanks Richard

Self Portrait, 11”x14” oil on line, in a ornate Gothic frame circa 1989ish

‘Boy Blue Jeans’ 40”x30” oil (1988-89)

Art, Nature & Soul #81

Today, this Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2023 marks the 46th year of my brother Rodney’s departure from this life. He would have been 50 years old this past November 1, all saints day. I was age 13 at this time, just barely a teenager in 8th grade and his loss was profound and devasting. But, don’t run-a-way quite yet, for this is more than a story of grief, its also a story of triumph and the influences, the fleeting moments of our lives that define us, compel us, direct us toward the pathways of our lives.

The past several years, there’s been an inordinate amount of emotional turmoil and triggers, causing me to say out loud on more then a few occasions, “This is what my childhood was like and it never stopped.” In recent years , in counselling I discovered that I have and suffer from PTSD for most of my life…Well talk about triggers, yes indeed. But, again, I’ll save those details and story for another time. Perhaps, if not likely in an autobiography posthumously. But, today, this story is about a lifetime of me discovering the healing powers of the arts, whether it be music, poetry, writing, dance, theater, sculpting, painting or other artistic outlets out there. Create, it’s a choice.

As I’ve already said, Rodney’s passing hit me hard as I was just a child myself. Over the past months I’ve had reason & occasion to be reconnected with family memorabilia from my past, most of which I hadn’t seen and some hadn’t remembered in over 35 years. There were stacks and stacks of photo albums, a drawing I had done in 78’ and given my mother in 79’, a grandparents, Sperry family Bible that had recorded the births & deaths of family members. Plus other assorted odds and ends…dads coin collections, mom’s rose pattern fine China that served family & friends, at grand parties & events, for decades upon decades. Yes, indeed, it was overwhelming as the memories came flooding back.

As if the family Bible wasn’t enough, marking Rodney’s, birth & death dates. The photos, yes, there he was like memories, validated. Memories & photographs come to life. Sometimes I find myself talking about my brother in memory flashes. One such is where I’m holding him, helping him pet our childhood pup Hardy. It always made Rodney smile & giggle, and there it was a photo, not 1 but 2 taken a year and a half apart showing this strong joyous memory, verified. Then another I hadn’t remembered at all, me at 11 or 12 years old , holding my brother about 3, on my shoulders. Well yes, it brought more then a few tears to my eyes as I acknowledged, yes this is exactly how I felt, now as then, about Rodney, ‘he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’…The photos went on and on and I saw Rodney being held and loved by family members & friends, when I see and think, ‘Everybody loved Rodney’. Then my sisters says, ”Don’t cry,” as she pulls a drawing I drew of him, when I was 13-14 years old, and about a year after his passing then gave to my mother, one Valentines Day thereafter. The drawing was all eyes to brain to hand…no grids or mechanical methods were used to reproduce his likeness from the photograph, just a sketch pad piece of paper & a HB pencil, plus my early artistic license & emotion are added, to capture & convey his essence & my love for my brother

So, it’s with this discovery that my story ends and begins. In my grief, I tried to funnel my feelings into a creative expression. Of course, at the time I had no idea that was what I was doing, but in hindsight, I see and realize I had been trying to do that prior to this occasion and all along. (*when my sister, Baby Diane had passed on, at 4 months of age, me about 5 and remember clearly, then soon after in a grade school classroom art project, we were to make an Easter basket out of colored construction paper and put your family names on the eggs. I of course added Diane posthumously.) I’ve come to understand and the realization that we never get over the grief of losing a loved one. We merely learn to live with it and hopefully put it in a treasured place where the love is protected and if we’re able, to turn it into an expression of that love to be given freely to other’s. I’ve repeatedly stated to most when asked and speaking about my artwork, that its emotive based & therapeutic for me. As an adult and recently, when, what felt and enormous stress, planned and started the day by doing an abstract artwork, to workout some of my emotions out on canvas, knowing fully it would help, it did for that day, maybe several others afterward. Like I’ve stated & written, my artwork is an autobiographical, a chronology of happenings. Apparently I need lots of therapy, ha.

I remember Rodney R. Sperry, born 11-1-73 - passed 11-23-77:

My brother had Cerebral Palsy and some other physical challenges. Having lots of friends & a large extended family, growing up it seemed that he brought out the best in people and that we were always surrounded by family, friends with an unwavering love. His smile lit up the world, mine for sure, still does.

Today I'm grateful he was part of my life and for all the lessons he taught me in his short time here on earth. I’m also, thankful for all the people and lives that have been in mine, hope they all know how very much they mean to me & that they are loved, more so, that they are part of my thoughts, heart, & artistic expressions, always.

And lets face it, like Harvey Fierstien, as Arnold said in Torch Song Trilogy,” It's easier to love someone who's dead. They make so few mistakes.”

(*With these things in mind, I also immerse myself in many of the other arts and feel strongly that it needs to be advocated for and implemented in our schools if for no other reason but to help people balance their lives out with a constructive creative emotional outlet, in the context of life’s harsh realities.)

Thankful for you & grateful for the shared fleeting moments that we move through each others lives.

As always your thoughts & questions are welcome,

Richard

Rodney Sperry, my brother

HEROES, just for one day. Brothers

Art, Nature & Soul #79

I do a fair amount of what I call color studies, mostly in a square format. It’s a place where I allow myself to play with all the design elements…

contrast, balance, emphasis, proportion, hierarchy, repetition, rhythm, pattern, white space, movement, variety, and unity & the more obvious space, line, form, color, and texture.

I do not usually put them on my website except for the occasional blog, to illustrate an idea. Sometimes they’re plein air, other times from a photo, memory or my imagination. It gives my a place to try out a new technique as I’ve mentioned before I strive for a more organic vision & typically avoid a more static or contrived patterns.

Mostly these stand on their own, as completed works, that said, they’re also sometimes studies for larger artworks. They can serve as gateway purchases for the new collectors, although I’ve also had a customer do a 4 seasons composition of more local themed pieces. They also make wonderful accent pieces that can be hung or set on a bookshelf easel. However they move you, I hope its to a happy place, a memory or a place you’d like to be.

~Richard

A selection of 10”x10” & 12”x12” from 2023

Art, Nature & Soul #78

 It took me years & years of artistic self-discovery before I figured out I needed to be in the zone to produce consistently, in order to maintain the quality in the body of my artwork. Achieving that is about staying in the groove or zone and painting as much as possible. It sounds like a rather simple concept, but it’s easier said than done, if life demands, thus requires our attention in other areas. I’m a whole person, a real boy, with many commitments & responsibilities...always having & working a full time day job or 2 along the way. I've often wondered how different my art would have developed if I had the majority of my time to focus on it. But alas here we are as life is unfolding on schedule, & me without regret.

As a child I’d draw, lost in my creative world of make believe. It was a wonderful escape from the trials of daily life, that was full of constant turmoil, emotional pain & trauma. Art became a therapy of sorts for a child trying to cope with the drama of everyday life in my home, growing up. Late in life, in my 50’s, a counselor noted I suffered from PTSD. In my head, I thought, “don’t we all?” Truth is there are many people that do not grow with the trials & tribulations that I have. That said, in any case, I’d get in the zone, but could never stay there long as another family drama was unfolding, beckoning my attentions there, derailed yet again by emotion and drama that demanded my attention. While it’s true, I’m a sensitive person, focusing on art on a regular basis was nearly impossible, as I’d become melancholia and withdrawn. 

I have known who I was and what I wanted to be from a fairly young age. I’d say 7ish.  We all have different life struggles, approaches & routes. Some of us with more support and opportunity than others. Within my striving to become my best self, I’ve taken a more scenic, lest I say circuitous route. 
At age six, I did a drawing of a leprechaun. It was entered in a grade school competition and won first place, lucky me! I was hooked! I spent most of grade school in park district art classes as provided by the school and my parents. Throughout middle and high school Art classes were my primary electives for personal expression. I had wanted to go to S.A.I.C. after high school, but it was not to be. I chose the road less traveled...it was quite bumpy and a great life education, real experience, a thing you cannot get from a book, although not nearly as safe.

In my early twenties I was manager of a art supply, custom framing and home decorating store. Here I developed an eye for color as I had to mix house paint according to a customer’s needs, without aid of a computer, excellent! I continued experimenting with all the various art materials and developed some techniques I still use today. Being a early twenty something year old, I decided to submit my work to an outsider art gallery in Chicago and was told they didn't really show this kind of work. My work at the time leaned into the surreal and figurative. I was devastated, they told me to come back in six months, six months turned into nearly twenty years before I would resubmit artwork for exhibition.                                                                              Interestingly I continued in the custom picture framing business which evolved into limited edition print sales and on to original art sales...after viewing the first 10,000. pieces you knew what was good and what was not, now that's an art education. Continuing my art dream I spent time at College of DuPage, Kishwakee jr. College, other various art classes and then sometime around my thirtieth birthday I attended... finally S.A.I.C. , Yay! Hoo-Rah! But continuing studies there was not to be, so sad... I continued to dabble but focused mainly on selling other people’s artwork, custom picture framing and interior decorating, hence my design-oriented skills.

Regular life and survival needs swept in and so the focus remained there until...2004. A trip to MDI Maine, third week of October, the word was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, spoken more times than I care confess to. I was painting again and yet no single style was emerging as to be the dominate one I felt comfortable with enough to pursue as ME!

About a year later, a family loss. and out of that emerged some variation of the artwork I now create. The first six pieces I created during this time and the four afterward, were a huge success and sold. ( not ego, awestruck) Now feeling the call, a bit boxed in and drawn out with where I was in life, I needed to seek deeper fulfilment... to create and just do it, became my mantra. Having realized that the artwork I wanted to create was emotion based and expressionist in flavor I started to produce as much work as I humanly could, sometimes 5-10 pieces a week, just to get up to speed, pun intended.

Soon enough a body of work began to emerge and sell. So exhibiting became the mission and I did, all over from car washes (Strangely appropriate), art leagues, art fairs, local juried art shows, and local art galleries, including one in Chicago. Woot-Woot!...and a few out of state.
                                      They were selling and more importantly I had occasion to witness people gravitate to one of my works. In a group of 35 or so artist, yet they were drawn to one of mine. This was exciting and stranger was that the work seemed to have no age limitation in it's audience, as people from a young age to elderly folks seemed to relate to this work. Awesome!!! Still needing funds to continue on this path, a gallery was opened...and closed. Now the continuing art/life education had arrived at in full force. The pass/fail thing...quite scary but real!

So I now find myself still creating my signature works, custom framing, and doing the whole life thing- a 37 year long relationship, My family and friends, my companion pets(some variation throughout the years of dogs, cats, fish, tortoises), are most important to me and keep me centered.

Beyond this I enjoy reading, walking the dogs, traveling (a road trip kind of guy), music & concerts(extremely varied), a bit of a film addict, have in recent years been checking out contemporary opera's & I'll be going to my 1st ballet this fall and then there's more, much more, but you'll have to wait for the novel or follow me on social media, ha! 

So, drawing & painting daily or as often as possible keeps me in the best zone for consistency, learning and developing as an artist & human being. As an adult I’m keenly aware of these things about life & myself, intent on keeping focused on my art. Creating is a discipline, meaning that whatever your other commitments are, your artwork must rate high on the list and must be done. The more I'm able to create, the more I learn and better the quality.

 Briefly but importantly my values are in being authentic and keeping it real in all things... whatever that is and remember Peace in, Love out, keep the Hope going & have a little Faith in Yourself and each other! even when at times it seems near impossible to do so. Stand tall, carry a large brush and a larger canvas. Oh, yes one more thing, always make sure someone has got your back...for all those many times that you will fall, grateful that I do.

Peace, love & light Richard

Art, Nature & Soul #77

It doesn’t take much to inspire me to paint and translate my emotions into a visual. Sometimes a Fb friend posts something and I feel I must paint it. Sometimes from words, other times a photo

The Lower Falls at Yellowstone, as translated from a FB friends photo.

Al H

Beautiful! ...and somewhat erotic! I love it!

Me ~Al H interesting you say that. while I see the more obvious...early this year after the Dali exhibit...I had intended on doing a more surrealist piece entitled 'Gulliver posing in a sea of men' ...the more figurative & surrealist stuff I did in my teens & 20's...after months of reconsideration I decided to shelf it for now, as it's not really what I do these days...however I decided to incorporate it in to the falls in this piece..thank you.

I’ve been to most of the continental United States, however the northwest states have eluded my travels. I’ve always wanted to see Yellowstone and many of the other National Parks, but have yet to do the more grand ones. I’ve always liked the Albert Bierstadt and his more illustrated approach, near photographic paintings with atmosphere. When I saw a photo posted by an FB friend of the Lower Falls there, I was compelled to break out the paints and go to it my way.

It was a pretty dramatic scene in which I’d have to edit & enhance to create a more impressionistic take on the scene,, less branches on the edges and more rock platform in the foreground.. Once the image was in my head I went to work very quickly with brushes, palette knives, scratching tools & paint. What was transposed was more happy place where we the viewer are on the platform looking through the window made of branches. So here it is for your consideration…

I usually carry sketch pad and small painting panels when I travel , plus take lots of phot references for studio work. If you have a special place or moment in a photograph that you’d like translated into paint, message me, I love doing commissioned artworks too.

A Separate Peace 30”x40” oil on canvas

The Process~‘A Separate Peace’ 30”x40” oil

A Separate Peace 30”x40” oil on canvas

Art, Nature & Soul #73

Some 18 years ago Don & I were traveling in New Mexico, with our then pups, in Santa Fe. As a person who has been creating art since he was a child an promoting & selling other artists for the past 36 years we were checking out the art scene for myself as well as seeing what other artists were doing.

There's a couple strips of galleries' but none more happening then Canyon Road. I had already checked out Cerrillos rd. so I was now popping in & out of the galleries, on a mission. I read a quote many years ago stating that it's only after seeing 10,ooo. pieces of art that you can know good from bad. Ones taste factors, for sure, but as a person with a large palette for all kinds of art, I tend to agree. So I looked and looked, seeing mostly good & great art, but nothing was stopping me dead in my tracks, until I stopped in Meyer Gallery, although it was a partnered gallery, back then. Anyway they were uncrating this art for a show opening Friday night.

As the gallery director continued to unpack the artworks, I became increasingly delighted, fascinated & amazed. Truly the best work I'd seen in a long time. It was a perfect blend of abstract & representational, painterly & illustrative, bordering on surrealism but more mythical & symbolic in proportion, speaking volumes to me. It turned out the work was by Vachagan Narazyan, a non-conformist artist out of Russia. The circus theme is dominate in his work and his son was the model in each of these pieces as the central character in red. This piece stood out most to me but was way to far out of my wallet range at 20,000.ish $, even the smaller pieces were, but I fell for one of them too, it stayed on mind, long after I left the gallery & returned back home...then, several months later, the hunt began.

A piece entitled ‘Entertainment’ stayed on my mind, months after we got back from New Mexico. I was blown away away by his artwork & had done some research on the artist. About 6 months after initially seeing it, I called the gallery to see if it was still available, they said, no it wasn’t. I wondered if it had sold. The gallery said it had merely been switched out for other artworks, as galleries regularly rotate and change what they’re showing. I began some internet research, googling the artists name. It turned out he had shown his work at an east coast gallery, early on and was now at a west coast one, as well. I emailed both, east coast didn’t have it, but it turned out the west coast was in fact exhibiting it. It took a few weeks to locate it and I had. I purchased it and had it shipped immediately. It was almost the fish that got away. I would have regretted that loss. It’s displayed above my studio workplace desk and inspires me daily.

*Note to self~ If it speaks to you, go for it, before its to late.

Sorry I don't remember the title of this piece but it's by artist Vachagan Narazyan from the 'Disappearing Landscapes' exhibition.

artist Vachagan Narazyan from the Disappearing Landscapes exhibition.

Entertainment by artist Vachagan Narazyan

Art, Nature & Soul #72

Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture; the paint appears to be coming out of the canvas...2 favorites of mine. Both van Gogh & Pollock, as well as Rembrandt are known for this technique...with only the highest quality materials I utilize this almost sculpting technique, impasto, in my paintings, as well. This, plus my palette knife & sgraffito help to create an added sense of depth & motion.

While its difficult to photograph and show the texture, both of these figurative pieces utilize impasto as I paint the painting. The layers & texture adds to the complexity & dynamics of the completed piece. The edges are shifting, allowing the viewer to complete the forms insisting they use their imagination. Instead of telling you what to see I’m asking , how do you see and fit into this scene. I love color and typically my palette shifts from a muted or tonal to colorist or sometimes pastel glow, according to the actual types of light within the space. These shifting qualities amplify the settings of my more representational artworks, certainly, and still get tweaked & adjusted in my abstracts too, according to the story being told.

These 3 have a very special place in my heart & psyche. The boy, is Henry my great nephew. He developed Diabetes when he was 4-5 years old. The older dog is Sunshine, my fathers dog who he recently sent to live with them, as he is no longer able to physically & mentally care for her, for health reasons. He then sent the pup to them to be trained as a therapy dog, Betty, named after the late Betty White , is a quick learner and the trainers are impressed by her intelligence at the task at hand. Which is to sense & alert us when Henry’s blood sugars are too high or has fallen to low. Together they are Real American Hero’s.

Every face & each piece tells a story & are oil on canvas. If you have a story that needs to be told and commemorated, like how I tell it, contact me, I love to do commissioned art works. These 2 received lots of praise on the social media circuits and were likened to van Gogh & Wyeth’s work, to which I humbly accepted, with a blush.

As always your questions & comments are welcome,

Richard

‘Real American Hero’s’ 20”x24” oil

'Breakfast's Ready' 24"x20" oil

Detail