Richard Painter

Richard Painter was born in October 1954 in Gainesboro, Tennessee. For the next five years, Richard traveled around the United States in an “Airstream” trailer pulled behind a 1951 GMC pickup truck, the family being forced to follow his father’s dream of working as a cross country pipeliner. At that time, the work of a pipeliner involved moving every six months to follow the progress of the pipeline. This created a bit of a problem once the children reached the age of necessary education. So, after attending elementary school in three states during his first year, it was then that the family came to settle down on a farm near Bethpage, Tennessee in 1960.

After his years as a student, Richard entered the blue collar work force. By this time, his father was working as a heavy equipment mechanic and it seemed natural for the son to follow in his footsteps. Richard never quite felt comfortable in the rough and tumble environment of heavy equipment mechanic work and welding and decided at the young age of 27 to return to school. The decision to leave this way of life and to try to become an artist was excruciatingly difficult but, thanks to “Reaganomics” and FDR’s unemployment insurance plan, Richard began his new life as an artist at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee around the year 1981. He acquired an Associate’s Degree in fine arts with an emphasis in painting and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1985. His academic standing and portfolio helped him receive two full scholarships and tuition waivers to Austin Peay State University’s Center of Excellence in Fine Arts, in Clarksville, Tennessee. He completed his course work there and received the Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Painting in 1987, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Just three months after receiving his degree, Richard entered the Annual Mid-States Art Exhibition in Evansville, Indiana and was awarded the top purchase prize of $3,000 for his work entitled “Entity.” He then acquired the space on the town square of the aforementioned Gallatin that would become his studio. The space was the entire upper floor of a bank that was built in 1909. The main room was 40 by 40 feet with 14 foot ceilings. Although unheated and un-cooled, and with only two electrical outlets, this space would prove invaluable to the artist’s development for the next 11 years. It was here that many doors were opened.

The early years of any artist are devoted to building a respectable body of work and then making every attempt at getting it shown at just about any venue. With luck and perseverance, Richard continued to work throughout the decade of the nineties, being accepted into various competitions and gaining gallery representation throughout the United States. In 1994 he was awarded a six-month cultural exchange to work in Switzerland. During this time Richard traveled throughout Europe and completed several works based on Rodin’s “Burghers of Calais” as well as many mixed-media works. He was then invited to be a part of the month long international symposium “Maskeraden” in Leipzeig, Germany in 1997, where he completed an installation work entitled “Voyeur.” In 1999 Richard was part of a two week cultural exchange between Israel and Tennessee which involved 8 artists from each country.

The charred wood panel works began in 1995. These charred works grew out of a series of works from 1992-1994 which involved the use of raw charcoal on shipping crates. These works were very expressionistic and combined the marks and stenciling on the crate with the artist’s renderings of various classical works by such artists as Da Vinci and Michelangelo. This was a way to “democratize” the work by bringing the world of the dockworker and the world of “high” art together. Because the charcoal used in the renderings was left unfixed so the work would continue to accrue history, many viewers asked if the images were burned into the surface of the crate. Richard decided to develop the technique of charring the images into the surface of wood panels instead of using charcoal. He continued exploring and expanding this technique and it is still evolving, the most recent manifestations being the free standing sculptural works.

In 2000, Richard moved to Tennessee where he currently resides.