The Artist’s Journey

My passion as an artist is a common thread throughout my life, my painting has always nourished and sustained me.

I was born in 1959 in Golden, Colorado. My father, Robert S., was a watercolorist and civil engineer. My mother Gail was a teacher and a poet. My only sister Kim runs an Academy of Dance and I feel that movement has shaped the way I see and interpret nature.

Father was my earliest teacher. He often took me out on sketching and painting adventures with him! I learned to paint first in watercolor.

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado State University I began to travel and paint. I lived and painted in Mexico Thailand, Nepal, India, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Turkey, and Europe.

I was captivated by the rich colors of saris, the lush greens of vegetation, the deep blue of the sky, the earthy culture of India, and serendipitously I ended up staying there two years to complete an MFA in painting from Visa Bharati University, West Bengal, India. It was a magical place and time in my life. Villages surrounded the small campus with open rice fields, reflective pools of water punctuated by a distant palm, the voices of tribal women singing melodious folk songs as they walked to work the fields. 

In 1990 I moved to the juniper - pinion dotted hills of Northern New Mexico, where I married and had a son . Although no longer married, being a father and husband was a great joy and labor of love in my life.

I often rise early before the sun has touched the Earth. I will drive to a place I know in love to catch the first light of the day as the sun streams out across the land. As the day progresses, light and shadow change quickly; there is an urgency to capture the moment. Creative decisions must be made quickly and directly, win or lose.

Painting is something I practice, like a musical instrument. Each painting is linked as a necessary step to creating the next painting. In this way there are no bad paintings, only practice, only process.

The bouncing light, the energy of the Earth, are at the heart of what I seek to capture. I would love for the viewer to feel as if they are standing right there, to feel the place, the magic of the day.

Painting, like life, is improvisational. As I lay down paint, I respond to what's happening on the canvas. Sometimes something unexpected, magical happens. I'm constantly deciding what to save and what to change.

I love the beauty of the paint itself. My process is less about articulating the paint and more about letting things happen, recognizing when wonderful things emerge! I want there to be an unintentional, organic quality to the painting, where the beauty of the paint itself can speak.

The mark, the calligraphy of the painting is dear to me. I like to lay the paint down and leave it alone, to preserve the integrity and freshness, the directness of the mark. I would like the viewer be able to walk back through the process visually, seeing and feeling how the paint was laid down. Following the dance, the process!

I am so grateful to all those who generously supported my artistic endeavors. To my family and my friends who always believe in me and support me, to those who love my paintings enough to purchase them, to live with them. They are a true blessing in my life!

-R.E. Reynolds