The Art of Rick Berry: Art, Mind, Vision.

One of the best things about being an artist, is you get to work with other artists. It's not hyperbole to say that I've had the good fortune to work with some of the best.

While I was at Penny-Farthing Press we had occasion to hire Rick Berry to paint a series of covers for our graphic novels. The second I saw his work I was hooked, and he has continued to be one of my favorite artist to this day. (I'm sure I'll get an, "Aw...shucks, Teal" email when he reads this.)

Anyway, you need to know about him.

His work is intense, fluid, mythic and mystical. His figures seem to fly in and out of different realities, and yet no matter how strange or otherworldly they may look, there is always something fragile within. I don't know any artist who paints movement and energy better.

I often feel when I look at his art that he is painting things I have dreamed. I own a huge print of the painting, What I Like About You, featured at the top of this post, and I can stare at it for hours...or at least, minutes, and then I feel inspired and get up and dance.

Limited addition, truly archival prints (they own their own press and oversee the entire process) of some of Rick Berry's artwork is available through his collaborative adventure with fellow artist Darrel Anderson. Visit Paper Eye Editions to view the current selections.

If you are reading this from New York City, then you are in for a real treat. You have one more day to hoof it down to Soho to see selected works from Rick at the Arcadia Fine Art Gallery
located at 51 Greene Street (between Greene and Broom Sts) New York City, NY 10013 (212-965-1387). This gallery is a favorite of mine, and also houses works by my former classmate and friend, the incredible realist artist, Michael Grimaldi.


If you're in Los Angeles next month, figurative oils by Rick will be on view at Nucleus Gallery, 10 minutes from downtown LA.

For more information on this show, or upcoming events featuring Rick Berry's work, contact Shelia Berry, at sheilaberry@braid.com.

All of the art featured here can be viewed online at braid.com, or rickberrystudio.com.

Rick's art is also the subject of several books:
SPARROW: RICK BERRY
DOUBLE MEMORY: Art & Collaborations by Rick Berry and Phil Hale

What will shock you even more as you look at these paintings is that Rick is self-taught. He has honed his craft through, "...museum visits, collaboration with peers and extensive, continuous study."

Rick lives and creates art in the Boston area with his wife, Shelia, and their beautiful family.

I can't wait to see what he does next.

The Art Students League of New York

When I was 18 I moved to New York to go to art school. All I knew was that I wanted to be a fine artist, and that The Art Students League of New York had been recommended to me by the mother of a friend, who was a proffessional artist, as one of the best places to study, especially if you were interested in the techniques of The Old Masters.

The League's philosophy suited very much my idea about what the study of art should be comprised of...

The League began and continues to be a collection of studios, each autonomous and directed by the creative authority and counsel of the individual instructor without interference from the administration - a tradition that ensures that students are able to choose among a wide range of modes of expression. This framework, based on the 19th Century French atelier system, enabled a pluralistic and inclusive education - one that cultivated both the technical and intellectual components essential to developing the skills of visual artists.

Georgia O'Keefe, Alexander Calder, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Man Ray, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and many others famous artists had attended the League...I could NOT believe I would be studying at such a place. My stomach was turned inside out.

I was living outside the city, so I took a train into Manhattan and then slugged my big black portfolio from Grand Central to The League on West 57th, just down the street from Carnegie Hall.

I walked into the office of Rosaria de Florio, the League's Director at the time. I sat down on the floor by her desk and opened my portfolio on the ground. She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and looked down at my work with careful consideration. "Hmmmm...yes...", she said, "I will put you in the class of Ted Seth Jacobs, he will teach you how to draw and paint light on form." If I had known anthing of who Ted Seth Jacobs was, I probably would have been too intimitated to go!

I think back now and imagine the experienced eyes of this woman on my childish mish-mash of high-school art, and I am so full of gratitude for the care and seriousness with which she regarded what I had done, and what I meant to do. The time she took, and the wisdom of her decision to put me in Ted's class has made all the difference in my life.

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