Ric Sadler: Color and Light

05/19/2023

12/27/2022

Some of you know I paint a lot when we visit Mexico.

Some of you also know that Puerta Vallarta has a love affair with Elizabeth Taylor (after she and Richard Burton spent time there in the early 60’s)

A number of years ago this magazine cover was published and I was so taken with the color and vibrancy of the famous photo that I saved it.

Now I painted it. 🫢

It’s pretty big too.🤭

10/24/2022

I often do not sign my work. I think there is probably a deep Psychological reason but to be honest, it is illegible and I never think the work is done.

With this one, I recall being skeptical that I would ever be able to get the tree buds to read in front of the houses. In the end….I think it works. It was done in the mid 80s as the funky signature tells me so.

I still own the original piece but it is becoming increasingly brittle.

Enjoy.

10/11/2022

Another favorite.

Stuart and I moved to Atlanta in the early 90’s and bought our first house together.

The place was big and needed big art so I bought a huge roll of watercolor paper and went to town painting flowers.

A few of them ended up in a gallery in Saugatuck Mi years later including this one.

Enjoy.

09/26/2022

I should probably explain this one.

My first trip to the Art Institute. My first glimpse of

“The Crucifixion”
1627
Francisco de Zurbarán
Spanish, 1598–1664

It was enormous and may be the reason I took up oil. The image, regardless of religious implication, is astonishing and profoundly empirical.

I worried about photographing it but no one seemed to mind.

Then I painted it.

My own version is large as well and the original hung in the living room of a garden apartment in Chicago. It was an “iffy” neighborhood and I credit the painting (hung in plain view through the garden windows) with ensuring my safety during the late 80’s. Sadly it was destroyed a few years later but through the wonder of photography, it lives on.

I know many have seen the real version. If not…..you should.

09/25/2022

I think this is cool cause you can see my finger prints on the hat under the glaze. Not a very handsome fella but big and brittle!

09/16/2022

So the story with sculpture:

This is polymer clay otherwise known as “Sculpy”

Each of the figurines are the exact height of the oven cuz said oven is the kiln. (Unless you make them in two peices as the old priest is.

They are also stuffed with anything that will hold the shape. Glass, tinfoil, wood etc.

I think it might be time to find a genuine potter for some real lessons.

Enjoy!

09/15/2022

This is a watercolor rose done for my brother in the early 90’s.

I like the deep black against the beauty of the natural form. And the tips of light on the petals remind me how important the absolutes of black and white are in the illusion of depth, shape and space.

Listen to me pontificate!

Any whooo, I do love watercolor.

09/11/2022

Again with the basket obsession.

I need to remember to take more pictures while I paint.

Birdhouse Gourds from last year.

09/08/2022

Again, very large.

What I think is interesting…The source of the light. It’s coming from inside the shape. Someplace.

09/05/2022

Hidden find.

Early 80’s

Colored Pencil. (Don’t think I ever worked with them again)

The source was from one of the many illustrated versions of Mr. Shakespeare’s “Mid Summer Night’s Dream”.

I believe I was in theatre school, thus the subject matter.

Certainly not a masterpiece but a great closet discovery.

“I’ll met by moonlight proud Titania”

08/28/2022

Another favorite. Again very large.

If memory serves, the occasion may have been a housewarming as the piece hangs in my eldest sister’s home.

I do believe this was painted high above Chicago near the turn of the Century. (Doesn’t that sound cool).

Enjoy!