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Inspiration from Artists Wk155 Featuring Artists : Rick Stevens and John Doyle

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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Welcome to this weeks thread , the featuring artists this week are : Rick Stevens and  John Doyle Jenny will open with her introduction to Rick Stevens , on Wednesday I will introduce John Doyle , have a good week and enjoy your art .

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Jenny Harris

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RICK STEVENS, born 1958, is an American artist. Originally from Michigan, he now lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He began painting alongside his father who was a plein air landscape artist, and he later studied for an art degree.  Although he no longer sees himself as a landscape painter, he bounces backwards and forwards between more representational work and abstraction.  Nature, though, continues to be his inspiration and he sees it as a continuous flow of shapes and patterns of energy and tries to work intuitively. He always keeps a sketchbook to record small studies for use in future work.  He works in both oil and pastel and his work is often on a large scale.  For oils he starts with a layer of gesso and two layers of an acrylic colour and uses cold wax and gel mediums for texture, sometimes applying a gauze with the wax, and adding gold leaf in selected areas.   For pastel, the paper also gets an initial colour, after a layer of vine charcoal.  The colour used is from powdered pigments rubbed into the paper.  He will sometimes use coloured pencils with pastel.  Using fixative is an important part of his process with pastel and he will sometimes scrape off areas with a knife.

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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thanks Jenny for your informative introduction, I will have a look at his  work online tomorrow.
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Tony Auffret

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He clearly likes trees, they even feature in his more abstract paintings.  His work reminds of some post-impressionist and symbolist paintings, Bonnard, Redon for example.  Although I find it fascinating and intriguing I am never sure if I actually like it.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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He is very good at painting trees , some of his landscape I think I like , I say that as like Tony I’m not really sure if it’s I like or just intrigued by them. Non the less he certainly has some skill in using his paint and applying it to his chosen surface.  First one I do prefer to any of the others I’ve seen, I’ve included a shot of his studio.

Jenny Harris

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Another photo showing the scale of one of his larger paintings - taken from one of his YouTube videos where he discusses his working methods.  Tony, he does quote Odilon Redon as one of his influences.

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Norrette Moore

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I like his colour palette, which for some reason made me think of Klimt at first glance.  He doesn't seem to get bored with the same type of semi-abstract, but they make a fabulous set.

Jenny Harris

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Paul, your second to last image is actually a collaboration between Rick and his wife, the artist  Alexandra Eldridge. Their work has been photoshopped into a combined artwork for a series called ‘Curious Conjurings’.

Alan Bickley

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I don’t particularly like every one, but I’m really interested in seeing many of the pastels of woodland scenes with the trees. Very impressive and enjoyable to study his colours and style!
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Marjorie Firth

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I agree with you Colette, I can see Klimt in these.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Another one here who looked at some of these and thought "Klimt!".  It's mostly those leaves, touches of bright colour without any distracting detail.  The jewel-like approach.   I do find some of his work a bit of the formless side - yearning for a few sharper touches. 

Sylvia Evans

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Like a lot, very much a subject that appeals to me. Not too sure about the animal nuptuals.
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