Q: This past spring being the first while living in the Chicago area, how has that changed some of the images we might see from you in the near future? Although surely missing your old "stomping grounds" in the Washington DC area, like the C&O Canal or Mather Gorge, have you found some fresh locations that have inspired you to paint over the next year?
JR: Springtime on the east coast is definitely something to be missed, and I definitely do. The innate verdant beauty of that area with its abundant and lush flowering shrubs and trees is not to be equaled. However, I have discovered the magnificent Chicago Botanic Gardens which are going to supply me with continual subject matter throughout of the year. The gardens are also endowed with wonderful and identifiable structures such as ponds, trellises, urns, fences, etc,
which should make the paintings interesting. And, of course, Lake Michigan with its many moods is still on my list to paint. We recently moved into an 8 story building which has a rooftop deck with magnificent views of the beautiful old homes, church steeples with the lake and the city in the distance. I need to get busy!
Q: You were recently opened a studio in the Chicago area. How does it feel to be sharing an artist working space with such an interesting and diverse group of other artists?
JR: Oddly enough, I have never worked around other artists or even personally known many other professional artists so the experience in the new studio space is very gratifying. Most of my career, I have worked primarily in my home based studio and shipped my paintings to galleries in other cities which, while probably efficient, is a fairly solitary, private occupation. The building my studio is now in houses not only visual artists such as sculptors, painters, printers and photographers, but also singers, musicians, the Light Opera Company, and several small theaters - quite a diverse group! Hopefully it will lead to new ideas and inspirations as well as friendships in the Chicago area.
Q: You have recently been concentrating on your portrait painting. Can you tell us more about this endeavor?
JR: For the past six months or so, I have been taking a break from landscape and floral painting to concentrate on painting portraits - portraits of people other than my children and grandchildren and it has been rather fascinating. Not only have I been honing my already extensive portrait skills but I have discovered how much thought and intense concentration is required when painting close likenesses, especially with new subject matter not familiar to me. Probably like most portrait artists, I find myself surmising about their lifestyles, their personalities, and whether life has treated them kindly or not. Very possibly, and hopefully, the right side of my brain does delve under their exterior and place some of their inner qualities on canvas with paint being the medium. It also occurs to me how very few people experience the pleasure of spending hours painting their own progeny, mulling over that one child's or grandchild's features, their coloring, their emotional make-up, habits, moods, etc. I have been lucky.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden; Original Oil on Masonite Board
