Rick's creations

This one was done from a stunning photo from my friend and former neighbor, Ragen Skjævestad, who is an amazing photographer. If someone could teach me how to paint really small, thin branches I would appreciate it.

My sister-in-law KC Dietz suggested that I paint their beloved, but sadly deceased, Kip. I sort of dismissed the idea, but later I found this beautiful photo she had posted and decided to surprise her with the painting. Did you know you’re supposed to wait 6 months for a painting to cure before you ship it? I’m eager to send it to you, KC!

I wanted to do something less conventional, so I had the idea to amalgamate lots of colors to paint something brown. Thus the fiddle. It still came out conventional, I think that’s just my style, much to my chagrin I tend toward conventional. Ugh.

Fiddler Jones

THE EARTH keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

I wanted to paint something yellow, so I chose something original, sunflowers. The original vase was clear, but I like blue (and black). I thought the vase was a disaster, but when I blended the edges it magically looked pretty good! An important lesson. The texture on the flowers was an experiment, and another valuable lesson. They don’t look like real sunflowers, but they’re nice to look at anyway.

My lovely and talented wife Allison said, “If you want people to like your paintings, paint a dog, everybody loves dogs.” When smart people give you advice, don’t ask questions, just do it.

My teacher Gail helped me a lot on this one, too. But I did the eyes, I like them.

For #3 I wanted to do something easy and colorful – which has become a regular goal. This is the first one I really liked.

Painting #2 was all mine. I don’t like to look at it, the stick figure golfers bother me. I found out pretty quickly that painting people is difficult.

This was my first painting, in November, 2018. It is not really “mine”, as my teacher, the lovely and talented Gail Pean, helped me with it a great deal. Still, it was a great experience as I found that I could learn to paint and maybe create something nice. Thanks, Gail!