Windswept Sky & Wind Artist

Windswept Sky - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

Among the kingdom of the winds,

Perhaps, there is one  of elegant mind

Who has no need to intrude

On the solitude of single things.

A wind at ease with depth

Of its own emptiness, who knows

How it was in the beginning,

Before the silence became unbearable

And space rippled to dream things.

A wind who feels how an object strains

To be here, holding its darkness tight

Against the sever of air, ever eager

To enter, and with a swell of light

Dissolve the form in its breathing.

A wind from before memory

Whose patience will see things become

Passionate dust whorled into sighs

Of ghost-song on its wings.

'Wind Artist' by John O' Donohue

Through a Landscape

From Warm to Cool, Through a Landscape - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

"When time is reduced to linear progress, it is emptied of presence."
- John O'Donohue

Lone Sheep

Lone Sheep - oil/canvas - 7"x5" - sold

'You have your ideology and I have mine'. - Kahlil Gibran

The Corner Stone

The Corner Stone - oil/panel - 7"x5"
(this piece did not appear in the recent New York Expo and is available for purchase.
please email info@richardhearns.com for pricing and additional information.)

“I want to do drawings which touch people...In figure or landscape I should wish to express, not sentimental melancholy, but serious sorrow.” - Vincent van Gogh

Burren Hay Bales

Burren Hay Bales - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

The quality of light and all the various textures that I found in the Burren landscape kept me with an unlimited supply of inspirational subjects. I am finding the same goes for the landscape around south Mayo and Connamara.

The drive to capture these fleeting moments of inspiration through a series of lush brush strokes, scumbled colours and patterns is simply endless. A wonderful task.

For purchase information please email info@richardhearns.com

- Richard

The Monk's Cottage & Richard Oliver Brushes

Monk's Cottage - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

Received very exciting news on Wednesday with regard to sponsorship from Richard Oliver Brushes.

Richard Gill of Richard Oliver has met with me now on several occasions to discuss my Art practice and achievements to date. He has been very encouraging and supportive to me.

I am delighted to announce that I have now secured sponsorship with Richard Oliver Brushes and will receive their finest range of brushes quarterly from the workshop in exchange for showing them as my sponsors on my blog and website.

A couple of contemporary artists I really admire from the States also have sponsorship deals from some wonderful art material manufactures.

This company which has been in existence for over a quarter of a century is in fact one of the worlds very best Fine Art Brush makers and their workshop is right here in Ireland!

I started using their brushes a couple of years ago and approached the company directly before Christmas with the idea to see how their brushes are made and buy myself some new ones directly. The production is achieved with such care, exact precision and craftsmanship. Each artists brush is individually handmade using only the finest materials.

There is a huge demand for their brushes in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the US.

They hope to develop a website soon that I can link to but until then they can be contacted directly for orders. See below.

Richard Oliver
Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Telephone: (094) 9022559 Fax: (094) 9022559

Golden Grey

Golden Grey - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

My small scale analytical studies and sketches in oil have lead me down many exciting avenues and pointed towards many truths about various processes and developed ways of seeing since first beginning working this way in June 2008.

Before this investigative body of Work began I approached most of my paintings in a very different way, concerned with a very different visual language, equally expressive, but different.

The use of a wide range of mixed media and supports such as photographs in combination with memory brought about an altogether more eclectic experience during the creation of said pieces.

Now I find myself back to a method of working that is quite purely instinctual and progressive and I hope to hold that focus and combine it with all the knowledge I have accumulated from working directly from life.

Perhaps sometime in the next year I will have an exhibition which features Works from every period of my life to see how they have all knit together and produced the artist I am at present.

Of course this is to be continued!

- Richard

Eastern Cove, Westbound

Eastern Cove, Westbound - oil/panel - 7"x5"

Art arises when the secret vision of the Artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes - Kahlil Gibran

For purchase information, please email info@richardhearns.com

Strode out, towards an Island

Strode out, towards an Island - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

Early one morning as I strode out, easel in hand, along the line of surf, I was greeted by the most wonderful haze filled sky and still reflective water. In the distance, past the lands end sat a vivid blue island shape.

- Richard

Radiant Light through Trees near Rayang

Radiant Light through Trees near Rayang - oil/panel - 7"x5"

Into my heart's night
Along a narrow way
I groped; and lo! the light,
An infinite land of day.
- Rumi

I delighted in the creation of this study in oil. Sitting in the shade provided by trees near the beaches end I worked towards capturing the low radiant light that drenched and flickered across the water close to my favorite island.

To purchase this painting please contact me by email to info@richardhearns.com

Red Boat near Rayang

Red Boat near Rayang - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

“Your life is an island separated from all other islands and continents. Regardless of how many boats you send to other shores or how many ships arrive upon your shores, you yourself are an island separated by its own pains, secluded in its happiness”. - Kahlil Gibran

Islands have been an important symbol and motif in my work for many years now.

There is something about a land mass surrounded by moving tides that struck a cord at a very young age and continues to resonate with me.

How many times have I gazed across at this landmass in wonder? How many times have I scrutinized it intently? I somehow know that this place is an extension of me - like I am gazing at a symbol of myself, a purer me with a strong voice and one clear message for humanity.

- Richard

Contre-Jour Arrangement

Contre - Jour Arrangement - oil/panel - 7"x5" - NFS

This piece was created one morning on a side street in the old town of Trat.

The glass vase holding the wrapped leaves and flowers was my centre of interest.

In the background across the street you can see the outline of my wonderful bicycle which was given to me by an old friend to help me get about the place.

Later that day I happened to bump into the head art teacher in the largest secondary school in the province and he asked me if I would be willing to give a painting demonstration to the students as part of a 112 year celebration of the schools existence. 

The following day I arrived at the school on my bike clinging onto my easel and portfolio case to be greeted by over 2000 students!!

The demos I gave over the two days were conducted under tarpaulin tents in the baking midday heat. The students rotated around the large yard to the various different seminars going on which included dance, boxing, music and games. 

I used some photos I had taken from home as a means of subject matter and was delighted with the response of the students and the way the pieces turned out considering all the gawking eyes peeping in wonder over my shoulders.

Mandarin and Inkwell

Mandarin and Ink pot - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

Painting is the language I endeavor communicate to the world with. When I am unable to say what I have experienced in words or have a visual idea about something I wish to communicate - I paint. It comes from inside me and what I endeavour to do is to not get in the way while those inner thoughts are transcribed visually by means of my brushstrokes through colour, value, edges and drawing. I want each of my creations to communicate something pure to the viewer.

Currently I am interested in the integrity of shapes within my paintings. How to describe something in the simplest way possible? Making form - form, space communicate space and atmosphere and colour just that - colour. 

Even in representational painting there is no 'one way' to describe a subject - no limit to the way something can be rendered and still appear authentic.

Satori

Satori (Mandarin and Sake Vessel) - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

Satori is a term from Zen Buddhism that derives from the Japanese word meaning "to awaken."

Some months ago while taking a walk in the Burren I had an insight about how I might depict, use and represent empty space and atmosphere in my paintings. 

Everything has space around it, and space plays such an important role in the makeup of the composition of a painting. 

Slowly I see these quite abstract thought processes and theories begin to surface in my work.