Richard Mattsson 

Moments Noticed

April 4 - June 27, 2025

Front Gallery

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Artist Talk | Saturday April 12th | I:00PM

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Visual and auditory experiences are major sources of sensory stimulation in my life. Seeing and hearing inspire within me, spontaneous, intuitive expression that I deem to be celebratory in nature. I have, since childhood, felt drawing, painting, and making to be magical activities.

 

Image making is, and has been, inspired by visual discoveries that stimulate interaction in much the same way a seductive partner invites me to dance. My partner and I mutually celebrate. I paint

what feels right visually and pictorially at the moment.

 

The unpredictable character of the ever-changing natural outdoor landscape intrigues me. I experience the event that is the sum of what is happening both internally and externally. I typically begin with an initial on-site experience that sets the painting process in motion. While I start from a direct visual response to the subject, I proceed editorially with decisions based essentially on what intuitively feels right –pictorially. From the beginning, I paint holistically. Since each stroke changes the whole image in much the same way that each note alters a musical composition, I measure the effect that each stroke has on the overall pictorial composition at the moment of its occurrence.

 

Each work is inspired by an event/experience discovery that informs me. I am led by it. To me, painting is a kind of dancing meditation.
Its’ meaning is in the joy of doing it.

 

Picasso has been quoted as having said “I don’t seek, I find!”
I fully agree with the present and discovery-oriented attitude suggested in this statement.

 

Richard Mattsson