J. Richard Secor: THE OLD & THE NEW

About Me

I am continuously self-taught – meaning that my style is always evolving through curiosity, intense observation, sudden inspiration and experimentation.

My style is primarily impressionistic with a sense of what I call rusticity and looseness.

Plein air painting typically provides me with a more playful and semi abstract-impressionistic style than does a studio piece.

I have studied with a number of fine artists and I do study the techniques of painters whose work I admire. However I take these techniques and convert them into my artistic presentation within my own style.

I am a member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society (NOAPS); American Impressionist Society; New Mexico Plein Air Artist’s Society; The Art Center at Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, NM; and a Juried Member of Contemporary Water Media Forum and a Juried Artist for the 2010 Nomadas del Arte Exhibit traveling 6 Southwest States for a period of 12 months.

Quotes and Excerpts from Artists Whose Work and Artistic Approach I Admire

Guido Frick: "If you forget your emotions, then you end up with a copy of nature. But combine your visual impression with your emotional input, and you might have a chance to create a piece of art." Judie Wagner: "Use paint like you are a millionaire!" Laura Robb: "I never draw outlines of objects before starting to paint. I perceive and render subjects purely in terms of color and shape. I keep things accurate, yet unrecognizable, for as long as I can. Once you have enough information on your canvas that you can name the object, the wrong part of your brain starts trying to take over and run the show!" Laura Robb: "When setting up a still life, I try to get the objects to talk to each other and then I try to paint that converation." Laura Robb: "My work is always moving in the direction of leaving more of the detail out, as a way of making the real story of the painting more important." Kevin Mac Pherson: "Plein air painting is a method - it is not a sign of quality. A painting has to go beyond a picture, beyond the mere documentation of facts. It must have emotional ingredients." Malcolm Liepke: "I love dramatic gesture."

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

THE OLD & THE NEW

24 x 30 on gessoed 1/4" MDF panel - this is a larger format than my recent pot paintings which have been 18 x 24 - Chroma Interactive Acrylics wet into wet with a lot of blending of color - The development of the aged texture on the antique pot with decoration was accomplished with a dry brush process. The seed pot (black pot) I recently purchased for my pot collection directly from the potter on the Santa Clara Pueblo in NM.

The concept of a seed pot goes back quite far into the history of the Native American Indians and was and still is used on the pueblos to protect their crop seeds from rodents, insects and mildew. There is a very small diameter hole in the top of the pot through which the seeds are dropped into the pot.

The antique pot with decoration is circa 1910 - artist unknown - origin determined to be the San Ildefonso Pueblo in NM.

The wall behind the pots is an impressionistic rendering of aged plaster.

C&C's if the spirit moves Ya'all