Meet the Artist: Rich Ford

Interview with Pastel Painter Rich Ford

COLORX3 on view at the Prairie Art Alliance Gallery until Thursday August 14th.

With the exception of the Barns series, most of the images in the collection are of trees or pathways.  Why did you select these types of images for this exhibit?

Sangamon Heading North

One of my downfalls is design.  I am constantly looking at the design of an image or landscape, analyzing how it works and how I can adjust it to make it work for the painting.  The design needs to move within painting.  This can be done through line but also values or color.  Even in plein air landscapes, design has to be there or the painting does not work.  You have to edit and refine what you see to create a design which carries the viewer’s eye through the painting.  That may mean altering a branch, so it leans into the painting instead of out of it.

Reading about the subject made me realize this work in the practical sense once I began transferring that knowledge to the painting.

Are your images created from photographs or plein air (outside)?

Almost all the images in this show are done from photographs.  However, I do a lot of plein air painting.  Plein air has taught me how to create and make decisions quickly.  This allows me to decide what in the photograph I am using and what to edit out.  I never want to directly duplicate my photographs.  I might alter the design or even the color of things.  For instance, I can use washes or change local colors while maintaining the values.  By doing so, you can magically turn a summer image into a fall image.

In the Barns series, you mention that you have restricted your color palette.  What inspired this challenge?

Entrance to the Milk House

For this challenge I started with complementary colors.  The sky is one set of colors and the barns are another.  You have to move the color around, weaving things together so the eye can make sense of it.  “Yellow Ivy” was done with split complementary.  This time I wanted a yellow sky.  That meant the evergreens would be purple.  This type of color challenge dictates what the final colors will be. 

I take each painting as a new challenge.  I may approach the same subject but in a whole new way, always pushing the boundaries.  It keeps things interesting.

You don’t have to paint exactly what you see. The overall design and shape have to be there but the color can always change. In the Barns series, I wanted to see what could be done by narrowing scope. The first one I created in the series was very abstract. “Barn Shadow” is fairly abstract as well. It was a very careful analysis of just shape and value.

Why did the rest of the series not continue as abstractions?

I have not succeeded to get back to the abstract. I think because I keep seeing the details and like them.

The Way Out

Light seems to play a key role in your paintings. Do you feel this is true and why?

Not light but value contrast, for example in “The Way Out” the contrast grabs you. I use the focal point as the place to have the biggest contrast. If you get it set up right your painting will be successful. Next is to decide how warm the light is going to be. Do you want cool light and warm shadows—the temperature of the color can be different?

 What is next for you as an artist?

I don’t know. I keep running up against new challenges that interest me.

Right now I am working on cacti, but I am using limited color. No green for the cactus or white for the flower. I am also doing this series on recycled paper, paper that I used for previous works that did not pan out. Good paper means that you can hose it off. There will be a stain left on the paper. That creates an additional challenge to find a way to work with the remaining stain. If there is a red orange background I may have to use a turquoise to compliment. The color wheel can work for you—a tool to make things work properly.

Follow our blog for to meet the other artist features in COLORX3 on view until August 14.

Meet the Artist: Jed Leber

Interview with Watercolor Painter Jed Leber

COLORX3 on view at the Prairie Art Alliance Gallery until Thursday August 14th.

"Reverberate"

Do you work from models, images, imagination, or a combination of all three?

All three.  They never come out anywhere close to the source image; I figure that is what photography is for.  I alter the image to better convey the emotion.

Do you sketch your paintings beforehand?

99% of the time. 

These images convey a variety of emotions. Do these tones originate with the subject or are you imposing them on your subjects?

I select images (either the sketch or photograph) because there is a look or a feeling that stirs an emotion in me.

"Dischord"

“Dischord” seems to be different from the others in that there is pigment on most of the canvas.  Can you talk about how you approached this piece differently than the others?

I approached the same way but I was not happy with the results, so I washed the image off the canvas with a grout sponge and a bucket of water.  I stopped halfway through because I liked the result. 

That painting has created a seed for a tangent that I will be exploring further.

You have stated that you challenged yourself with this series to create images with as little pigment as possible.  Where did the inspiration for this challenge start?  Do you think you can take this challenge further?

"Echos"

It was just an idea that popped into my head last winter.  Yes, I can take it further.  This series prompted a ton of tangents that I hope to explore.

Because of the scale of the canvases, the exhibit truly surrounds the viewer.  Why did you choose to use 4 x 5 foot canvases?

These canvases are pre-stretched and pre-gessoed.  I find the factory gesso is very compatible with the way that I paint.  These are the biggest canvases that the factory made.  I would have gone bigger if they made them bigger.

 What is next for you as an artist?

More painting.

Follow our blog for to meet the other artist features in COLORX3 on view until August 14.