RICH BOWMAN

ARTIST STATEMENT

I'm really not one to put things in a neat little box and label them, but for a quick explanation of my total body of work to date I'll try to do so. Basically, I have developed, over a decade, two starting approaches to painting.  One is based off photographic reference and preliminary studies, the other is completely free of photo reference and relies on adaptation and improvisation. In other words, starting a painting with a plan or without one.  Not all my work is completely one or the other. Sometimes I begin with one approach and complete the painting with the other.

Light blue hues, cotton filled clouds, the whisper of a moment

The spirit the earth makes after the sun rests

Simple shapes revealing complex thoughts

Complex thoughts revealing simple joys

The distant sound of thunder rolling through a strand of ultramarine curtains

A million more shades of green yet to be heard from

The familiar scent of a humid, summer, morning in a wood's break

Reminiscing about lands not discovered, making ones that eventually dissolve

The warmth of the sun and sounds that only leaves and birds make

The forgettably unforgettable, never to be seen again

Always there