MY PAINTINGS

Friday, December 19, 2008

This is my favorite painting because it reminds me of a time that I would dearly love to relive. The impulse to want to put my arms around the little shoulders belonging to my daughters Debbie and Cindy and squeeze them tightly is overwhelming some 40 years later. The painting was actually created from a black and white photograph that I took of the two girls, then ages 6 and 3, as they trudged and splashed along the Lake Erie shoreline at Port Ryersee, just a few miles from our home in Simcoe at that time.

1 comment:

Nicole LaBramApril 25, 2021 at 8:19 PM
Hello Richard ,
Would it be possible for me to post some of these with your profile on my group site Realtors and Art ?
They are so personal and individualistic and the kind of Art our members treasure.
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ARTIST AT WORK

Artist!...I use that word loosely because I have no formal training of any description. I have always enjoyed drawing and painting, however, and do it from time to time just for the sheer pleasure of it. There is no greater satisfaction than starting out with a blank canvas and turning it into a an interpretation of what you are seeing -- either in real life, from a photo or in your mind. I seem to do my best work in the realistic realm using vivid colors. I work mostly in watercolors but have also dabbled in arcylics and oils. Arthritic fingers and wrist have become a factor in the past couple of years, but I feel that I have at least a couple more paintings in me before "drying up" takes place -- either my paints or me, which ever comes first.

A few years ago I had a fixation with lighthouses and I did several paintings. My interest, of course, stemmed from my close proximitry to the Chantry Island Lighthouse (see painting below), just a couple of miles off the shores of Lake Huron at Southampton. I even made a to-scale model of the Chantry Island lighthouse which was displayed in our foyer for quite some time. No two lighthouses are exactly the same. Over the years, mariners had trouble distinguishing one lighthouse from another and a system was developed so that each light had its own flashing signal. Each lighthouse was also painted a unique, identifying color or comination of colors on some water systems and that's one of the things that makes them so interesting. I plan to further research this interesting piece of marine history with more paintings to follow in due course.

The "Under The Table Poker Trick" was probably the most fun I have had with a painting project. It is a takeoff on the famous "A Friend in Need" dog's poker game painting by Cassius M. Coolidge. I took liberties with the iconic painting by inserting grand daughters Becky and Alyssa and their family pets, Casey (the dog) and Missy (the cat). In this reproductive creation, Becky reveals that she knows Brutus and Bowser are cheating by passing cards under the table and Missy respons "Purrrrrrdy sneaky!" The painting was eventually a gift to the girls.

A lot of love and fond memories went into the painting of my home, the Wright homestead, on Sydneham Street in Dresden. Again the painting was taken from a photograph, circa 1952. The home was built by my grandfather, Wesley Wright, in 1879. The original key to the front door is inset and mounted in painting's mat. I struggled with pangs of guilt when I had to sell the home after the death of my mother and working on this painting was a form of therapy for me. It does not take too much imagination for me to see my mother standing inside the yellow screen door, nodding her approval.

MY PAINTINGS

Friday, December 19, 2008

1 comment:

ARTIST AT WORK

THE BABE AND GEORGIA PEACH

PRINCE LEE, 1977-'90: DOGGY HEAVEN COULDN'T WAIT

THANKS FOR VISITING!