Art, Nature & Soul #71

Hours before & during my waking moments of the morning, I’m most often painting in my head, planning an approach to something I’m working on or will soon be working on, as well as thinking about the next several pieces I intend on doing, visualizing there completion. Among them, I see interiors, buildings, people, animals, vast land & seascapes, plus abstractions nano & blown up, but reduced to design elements connected. Recently I noticed, after posting a newly completed abstract and a seascape I had done the previous year…that the language & messages were very similar, regardless of their abstract or representational leanings. It’s been a revelation to find that what my intentions are & have been reflected in my artwork, as well… as I narrow in on my abstract realistic aesthetic fusion goals.

I paint my life, as I experience it. I’m not merely an abstract painter or a land, sea or cityscape one or even a figurative one for that matter. The internal as well as the external mechanisms engage and compel me to paint my life, how I think, feel it, how I experience it and how I live it…my paintings are a diary, a catalogue and a chronology of happenings. Like the ripples on water when a rock is skipped across it, so are the echoes of life connected by atoms, not separated, but similar, the same, kinetic energy. Fractals, In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illustrated in successive magnifications of the Mandelbrot set. Life a series of patterns within patterns, within patterns onto themselves from the largest to the smallest in all things…telescopic to microscopic these patterns exist on all levels & aspects…chaos changes the patterns, thus outcomes, sometimes subtly other times not so much, as it, we all change, grow & evolve..

It’s not the first or even the second time I’ve raised and spoke about these ideas. They’re are significant and so important to me in so many ways, some I’ve illustrated now and others in the past. By design, like an artwork, our being & collective consciousness are but echoes of a single entity…life, the universe & everything. Like a Phoenix rising from ashes, so it is every time I paint, an opportunity to fly, to create anew, still the patterns & rhythms echo supremely throughout, from me to you, as one expressing our unique sameness unbridled. Hope you enjoy these 2 works and see the echo & synchronicity that occurred and that have appeared and so it goes, life.

peace, love & light Richard

‘The Prettiest Star’ 30”x30” mixed media abstract

New Day 30"x30" oil representational

Art, Nature & Soul #44

So it was, I had a title in my head and set out to express it, paint it…’WILD ABANDON’. I had three 36” square stretched gallery wrapped canvases ready, in which to do so. My thought was to make each panel strong enough to stand on their merit, but wanted a unifying thread. After some thought, the idea of a cardio rhythm was settled on, combined with certain universality in all things. A life in 3 parts conveyed, the first being birth through adolescents, second, the young adult through middle age & the third panel, the waning years and the heartbeat stops, to the unknown & ubiquitous nature of things.

And so it began, a drip & splatter layer of lemon yellow, followed by another in prism violet, enhanced by an interference green then blue coat, all in acrylic paint. Then I drew the cardio rhythm in and began working my oil paint palette on the canvases in an intuitive, but concise manner. Moving between the oil paint plus ebony pencil, 18k gold paint & white china marker, I added symbols, both known & unknown ones created and designed specifically for this composition. Layer upon layer, creating scribbles, marks and erasures, where needed to complete the intended dynamic, emotional impact & elements of design, such as line, direction, shape, size, texture, value, and color. Working back into the canvases & sometimes over them in both oil paint & oil pastels, over a month 1/2 or so, nearing completion, black charcoal & 18k gold leaf are added and carried through in each panel. After considerable visual re-evaluations & assessments, it was complete.

I had posted a detail of one of the sections while I've been working on this piece. One of my Friends asked. "What's your inspiration?" This was my answer~ "Life and all it's complexities. Especially in my abstracts, layer by layer, pattern by pattern, expressing the idea of fractals, chaos, unity plus the thought that all life is connected, in these things, from the tiniest to the largest. Sometimes what looks like the sun setting is really the sun rising. For continuity, I used a monitor heartbeat as the vehicle in which to carry through the 3 images" ~me

Those who know me, know I’ve been raising Shiba Inu pups for the past 25 years. So, I went to post a photo of the pups on Shibaholics on FACEBOOOK and accidently posted along with the photo of the pups, this artwork, plus a Ganesha sculpture, I own along with it…here's the conversation that transpired between a few members~

Jenn Barber M.

What’s the artwork and that light blue piece?

Ann S.

shiba ears = heartbeat rhythm?

Ann S.

Very interesting either way tho I say maybe he will add more input

Jenn Barber M.

Yeah, that’s why I was wondering. I really like the pieces!

Ann S.

Jenn Barber M., then again Blaze could be represented by the flames like pattern in painting and could that be blue jade or amber (dog names) hmmm

Ann S.

The blue symbol

I need a nap

Image of Ganesh Poster a3 India Hindu Elephant God for Success Pri... Lord Ganesha POSTER reproduction print for home wall'

Jenn Barber M.

By the time he responds, we will have already made up our own stories. The blue thing must be a still-frozen dog treat left behind from a glacier.

Ann S.

hahahha right?!?

Richard R. Sperry

Sorry, I'm an artist. Must have all been in the file and yes, I love the stories you've created. That's what it's all about. I'm an artist and the Ganesha is a larimar sculpture I have. I love how you all created stories though. Sorry it took time to respond.

Richard R. Sperry

Ann S. & Jenn Barber m.

, you both have me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face....Thank You!

Jenn Barber m.

Ann, would you believe we were wrong? Lol. But I really like the painting, Richard! Enjoy your vacation.

Sheryl S.

Keep the storyline going. This is fun.

Available, contact me for further info. As always, your thoughts & comments are welcome,

Richard

WILD ABANDON, in 3 parts, each panel is a 36” square mixed media on canvas

WILD ABANDON, in 3 parts, each panel is a 36” square mixed media on canvas

Detail from 3rd panel

Framed 112”x38” and available at Proud Fox Gallery & Frame Shop

Art, Nature & Soul #16

I love a road trip, heading down the highway, an adventure to destinations unknown. Growing up, I remember my family driving all over the country on various trips. Mostly camping, or visiting family, although sometimes they would be to explore historical sites. As I grew older, hopping on the train, or taking off in my car seemed second nature. To this day I still get that adrenaline rush of anticipation as I turn up the music, have the camera ready and hit the road.  Life is about the journey, not the destination.

During this time frame I was taking representational subjects and breaking them down unto their abstract forms. Dripping and splattering the paint attempting  to control the chaos. Besides having a vivid color palette, which colors I applied first became crucial to the dynamic dimensional aspects conveyed. Putting the sky in last, allowed the blue to drip across the entire landscape creating layers of depth.

These artworks seemed to have a theraputic value, a cathartic aspect to them, plus they were so fun to do. As always feel free to comment.

'Meditations 8, the road trip, 22"x10" acrylic on linen, (yr. 2011) in private collection    

Art, Nature & Soul #7

One of my favorite authors/thinkers once quipped, that the problem with abstract art is that it doesn't have a horizon line. Kurt Vonnegut also said and I quote, "I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

As more of an outsider artist, which is to say, an artist with very little formal training and making their way through the conformitities of the day, I'm more experimental in approach. As a boy of 12, I remember wanting for that eureeka moment and thinking that true art must be created in a vacuum. I doodled and drew often, mostly the people around me. Da Vinci, Dali, Van Gogh, Carravagio, & Pollock, were and are my primary artists of interest, as a child and young adult. 

From caricatures to realism, to the more surreal and impressionism, and on to post-impressionism and expressionism, I've created in pencil, pen & ink, soft pastel, clay, oil, acrylic, and a multitude of various fusions of mediums, exploring the possibilities.  Always with the idea in mind that I too could fuse ideas together into a single approach.

With this idea in mind, over a decade ago I began to blend my representational and abstract ideas together. This piece is one of the results of the process of bringing these ideas together. It is done in acrylics in a drip and splatter approach that is layered in a multitude of glazes. It is, I believe, one of my successful works of abstract with a horizon line.

Please feel free to comment.

'The Edge' 60"x48" acrylic on canvas by Richard Sperry

Art, Nature & Soul #5

I created this piece in 1997 and it has hung in my home since then. It still intrigues, holds my attention and seems to be telling, conveying a truth, of my own inner mystery. While I took many art classes growing up, I found myself constantly experimenting with the various mediums and had not sought or received much formal training. However, when I was younger, in my teens & 20s, I had it in my head to become a portrait painter and found myself taking a Rembrandt style painting class at the S.A.I.C. The palette was limited, was a great learning experience, with a fabulous teacher, as a plus, a Goya Exhibit was going on and I loved the history/story telling nature of his work. 

Soon after, I created this piece. Often times if an artist changes style to style to rapidly its thought they do not know who they are as an artist.   The fact is, that is, my truth is,  that a duality exists in myself and I'm simply not inclined or compelled to destroy it in the name of image. In other words, in the words of Donnie and Marie, "I'm a little bit country and a little bit rock n' roll." (obscure reference #1) While over the years I have refined my vision, I will always continue to experiment and be surprised when they go well.

This is a mixed media piece, that many persons have wanted to acquire, but I simply can't part with it, at any price. (Well, we'll see. Ha!) The many, many layers and various mediums create a field of depth and color shift that's uncanny. Depending on the type of light and it's intensity the painting actually changes from cool to warm and not all at once or as a constant. but as a growing evolving entity in its luminosity. Years ago it inspired this thought,~

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

~Richard Sperry 

'Infinity & Chaos' 1997,  48"x36" mixed media on canvas.