Painting is “passion, joy and challenge” to local artist

GREAT BARRINGTON – An exhibit featuring the paintings of David J. Richardson, a West Stockbridge-based contemporary artist with a non-conforming painting style, will open April 6 at 4 p.m. at The Isha Nelson Gallery, at 25 Railroad St.

 

It will run until May and beyond, as the artist’s work will continue to be shown at the gallery.

Since childhood, the 30-year-old self-driven artist has been interested in art. He enjoys  putting paint to canvas to create unique works of art that reflect “color, movement and balance.”

“My creativity has always been an outlet for me and a way to relate to the world,” he said.

His life path to date has contributed to his career as a professional artist.

A Pittsfield native, Mr. Richardson graduated from Pittsfield High School. He has traveled cross country, lived for awhile in Durango, Colo., learned how to surf in Baja, Mexico, then surfed in Gloucester and watched beautiful sunrises in Marblehead.

Some of his paintings evolved from those experiences.

“Ivy Girl,” for example, the name of a boat in a painting with the same name, came about when he saw boats washed up on shore after a storm.

He has also done a painting of a team of clydesdales,  famous mascots of the beverage industry, namely, Budweiser beer.

“It works like a magic eye” and has many layers to it, he said of his clydesdale painting.

To the non-artist eye, the horses do seem to impart motion and power, which are both elements related to the Futurist Movement in the art world.

An uncle of the artist actually has a farm in Morrison, Colo., where he has clydesdales.

Mr. Richardson dislikes being “put in a box,” as well as clichés. He said he’s introverted and on the shy side yet can also be outgoing and sociable.

Throughout the years, he has created literally hundreds of paintings, he said, and, for the past five years, has completely supported himself through sales of his paintings.

“If you don’t have a fall back, you don’t fall back,” he said with a chuckle.

He has a studio in West Stockbridge but is currently looking for an office and studio in Housatonic.

Sometimes he will work on three paintings at the same time, going from one to the other. Occasionally he will even put a painting aside for awhile and then work on it again months later.

Works in acrylics and oils

Mr. Richardson works in both acrylics and oils and prefers the latter.

 

“They are kind of like butter and they blend better,” as well as giving “more saturated color and a richer look,” he said.

“Oils are better for wet into wet,” he said.

The artist’s love of art goes back as far as a fourth grade classroom at Allendale Elementary School in Pittsfield. He said he remembers copying images from children’s books and working with them.

As a teenager, he painted billboards, bridges and buildings, eventually shifting to canvases. He said he has created numerous “murals and permission walls in cities.” He’s also worked with cultural councils to restore art in communities.

He reproduced an existing 1,000-foot mural on Harry’s, a building on Wahconah Street in Pittsfield.

“With a base of drawing, graffiti and acrylic painting, I progressed into working with oil-based paints in the fine arts realm,” Mr. Richardson said.

He has also taught painting in Cambridge, Lincoln and Great Barrington.

A free style painter

Mr. Richardson calls himself a “free style” painter.

“I do love over-saturated images,” he said.

He has a girlfriend who is strong and organized and helps keep him grounded.

“I’m loose and she’s strict,” he said.

More than six feet tall, Mr. Richardson has a reddish beard, brown hair and a gentle, quiet manner about him. Like the many layers of his paintings, there are also many layers to his life.

In addition to painting, he is involved in screenwriting for the making of low budget independent films, he said.

He also loves producing folk music via bass, drums, guitar and piano.

Some of his favorite musicians include Elvis, Bob Dylan, Jim James, George Harrison and Van Morrison.

Loves art, music and exercise

The artist’s mornings are usually dedicated to music. Many afternoons will find him painting and then exercising, running six miles daily through the picturesque countryside of West Stockbridge.

He appears to have completely fallen in love with the beauty of that area. He’s also a long-distance hiker.

Mr. Richardson is also writing a fictional book based on his many travel experiences and the “chaos that happens to an artist.”

One of Mr. Richardson’s favorite artists is Lyonel Feininger.

He was a German American painter who was a leading representative of Expressionism. In that style of art, artists “sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.”

“His art made me cry,” Mr. Richardson said of Mr. Feininger’s works.

Wants to promote art in the community

“Art is what I’m best at,” the artist said, adding one of his goals in art is to “render better paintings.”

“I want to become stronger in my craft,” he said. “I want to jumpstart the heart of art in this community.”

He said he wants people to say “yes” to art, including his own.

“I’d like people to say, ‘How do you do that?’ and really be impressed by it,” Mr. Richardson said.

He also said he likes to work aesthetically. Nothing would please him more than to have people be impressed with the paintings he strives so diligently to produce.