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CONTENTS PAGE

Richard Green

04 THE FALL OF WINTER05 STUMPS06 LAZY MAN’S TREE07 PURGATORY GOTHIC08 THE RETURN OF THE FALLEN09 THE SEEDS OF DEMOCRACY10 MIRADOR 11 LEFTOVERS12 LIFE FORCE13 RIDERS ON THE STORM14 THE RETURN OF THE KING15 SEA LEVEL SIESTA16 BISHOPS ONLY MOVE DIAGONALLY17 I AM BECOME DEATH18 JUST A WALK IN THE PARK19 THE END OF WINTER’S TALE20 KRIEGSBILDER21 THE END OF THE ROAD22 DANCE SYMPHONY23 THE BURDEN OF EVOLUTIONARY MISTAKES24 THE RETURN OF POLYPHEMUS25 FESTIVE LANDSCAPE26 NATURE’S INQUISITION27 SNEAK A PEAK28 WE ARE NOT OUT OF THE WOODS29 NIGHT VISITORS30 A TIME TO PLAY31 THE EYE OF OROZCO32 SOUTHERLY WINDS TODAY33 THE BIRCH ISLAND LINE34 PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON35 PARTY DISLOYALTY36 ESHINALIEN 1137 TWO’S COMPANY THREE’S A MURDER38 THE ANSWER TO HAYFEVER39 WHEN GARGOYLES AREN’T SCARY ENOUGH40 THE BUZZ ABOUT DOLLY41 COAGULA42 WE ARE OUT OF THE WOODS43 ALIEN DOLL

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INTRODUCTION

Having survived a thirty-five year career as an art director/graphic designer within the milieu of

advertising has brought me to where I am today, as an artist, as a person. Having rounded all the bases, I feel I am now at home with my approach and style to interpreting the world around me. I am no longer bound by what others think of my ideas. There are no more account executives, clients or fellow creatives to tell me where I went wrong. First of all, I want it quite clear that I don’t make a living with mycreations. That being said, I feel I am serving society in a far more usefulway, simply by transporting students to and from school. All of my work in advertising, including some rather prestigious awards, is long forgotten.Time will tell what influence I will have had on children. But I am nowconvinced that it could be far more important. It can be said that I began my work in watercolor as a direct retaliationagainst advertising and the stifling effects it has on creativity. So for along time, I was a weekend painter. It simply made facing Monday mornings more tolerable. So I had the best of both worlds: a great and well-paid career and a fantasy world. And now, that fantasy world is just a natural extension of that career. I don’t plan things very well. I therefore have no idea of where apainting ~ or a digital manipulation of a painting ~ will end up. I usuallybegin a painting with a gutsy, opening gesture. I let gravity control the flow of paint for a while ~ sometime IN control, sometimes OUT of control. I may repeat this process, a technique called glazing: applyingand letting dry several layers of thin color. Then I look, and look,

sometimes spending days just looking at the ‘thing.’ (I have been a student of Zen for the majority of my life. The idea is: let nature do the heavy lifting, or as the song goes: Let it Be.) Eventually, the paint will tell ME where to go next. I often finish the work with PrismaColor pencils. Oftentimes, the painting will stand on its own. Sometimes, it does not, and that’s where computers and Photoshop come forth and give it a life of its own. James Michael Lawrence is a Volunteer Curator on a website forMinnesota Artists, mnartists.org He discovered my work several yearsago and put my work in a very noticeable spotlight. This is what he has to say about my approach:Richard C. Green is a master of combining mediums while working in a dazzling variety of styles. His often-fantastic creations using watercolor or watercolor combined with digital manipulation software please the eye and engage the viewer’s imagination without his media or methodology getting in the way. Many artists have discovered PhotoShop’s ability to create kaleidoscopic images through cutting, pasting and butting together sections of an existing composition. It’s a stage that most digital artists go through before moving on to other explorations of the media. Richard C. Green works with a variation of that technique. Using his watercolor paintings as starting points, he scans them, uploads them to a computer and then manipulates them using PhotoShop. Given his sensitivity to nuances of color, form, and texture, the results are artworks that are altogether fresh and aside from others of the genre. Along with his computer generated works, the artist explores many other avenues and subjects, which range from futuristic, science-fiction inspired works to compositions drawn from more natural sources. The results

are artworks that invite viewers to experience worlds that are whimsical, mysterious, and often delightful. I wish to express my gratitude to Skillism for putting togetherthis compendium of my work and bringing it to fruition for thepublic at large. For a look at a much more comprehensive groupingof my works, you may contact me at dickg14@comcast.net andI will direct you to one of two different sites which contain a morecomplete profiling of my endeavors. Or go to Google>Images, andstart clicking. My sincere thanks to you all...

Richard C. Green • Eden Prairie MN • USA

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THE FALL OF WINTER

Our winter of 2010-11 was one of the worst we've had ~ 80"+ of snow and very cold. When it began to lose it's terrible grip, I began a series of paintings celebrating The End of Winter's Tale. This one however is photo-based, with a Staring Lake ambience.

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STUMPS

This watercolor is included in the series of pieces I entitle "The End of Winter's Tale." Like Andrew Wyeth who has a strong influence on me, it is a painting of where I live. As I pointed out, in each of these landscapes, there is a lie. In this case, it's all too obvious.

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LAZY MAN’S TREE

There is a lake in Eden Prairie, Staring Lake, which is to me My Walden. A creek flows in and out of this lake; it is called Purgatory. Lazy Man's Tree shows a portion of the lake, with 'the lie' being the fellow, drunk on his wine, having a nice nap by a fictitious tree.

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PURGATORY GOTHIC

Purgatory Gothic is one of several paintings I've completed of my own surroundings, in Eden Prairie. They are straight forward watercolor pieces but with one big lie in the landscape. In this case, my inspiration came from Casper David Friedrich and the ruins of a huge Gothic window...under attack.

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THE RETURN OF THE FALLEN

This watercolor came out of my imaginings during the height of the Iraqi War. The dead men and women are lying beneath the shroud seen on deck. There is no wind in the sails. There is no one at the rudder. The ship has no direction. What a waste.

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THE SEEDS OF DEMOCRACY

When this painting was finished, I got the idea: It is a ship in a foreign port. It has tried to deliver Democracy, American Style...but seemingly has met strong resistance. I reiterate: I don't do political art deliberately; it just does itself, maybe, with just a little nudge.

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MIRADOR

I have traveled more in Mexico than I have in the US, but surprisingly have not yet completed many paintings of my journeys there. Mirador, a lookout point along an ocean walk, was found in Mazatlán. Matting it, I believe, put my framer back on psychotropic drugs.

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LEFTOVERS

I spent my first 10 years of life living next to the most beautiful body of water in the world: Lake Superior. The entire North Shore looks like this painting, where my son (younger then) is feeding leftovers to the Herring Gulls, omnivores, through and through.

LIFE FORCE

Although this may appear to be a singular watercolor painting, it is actually TWO - twisted, reshaped and blended in Photoshop, and then to some extent, recolored just a little. It reminded me of something growing out of the ground, but with the impetus that only Springtime can provide.

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RIDERS ON THE STORM

I have, for some time, been impressed with the myriad effects of placing plastic wrap (in all its forms) over not-too wet paint - and letting it dry. In this example, I worked in deliberately small sections and created a type of pre-historic animal, with a rider, added carefully!

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THE RETURN OF THE KING

Being a Multi-Disciplinary artist, one must have at one's disposal access to a plethora of visual material. 'The Return...' has about a half-dozen images merged together to form one whole image. The King may be anyoneyou chose him to be - Elvis, Ferdinand or my son as a young man.

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SEA LEVEL SIESTA

I have done at least two paintings of my wife sleeping in the mountains. I applied Acrylic Gel Medium (and let it dry completely) to the mountain areas, and left the rest bare paper. The textural disparities are quite remarkable, and wipe-outs are easier over the gelled areas.

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BISHOPS ONLY MOVE DIAGONALLY

Blessed be The Chess Players for they had better look both ways before crossing the street! An episode of Ellen (Degeneres) gave me this idea. Page was dating an undercover cop, dressed as a priest, and Ellen told him to only move diagonally. You had to be there, I guess...

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The Destroyer of Worlds. From J. Robert Oppenheimer's interpretation of the Bhagavad-Gita, and his understanding of the destructive force of the atomic bomb, used on Japan in 1945. I don't 'politicize' much in my work. Generally, the work is finished when a name comes to mind.

I AM BECOME DEATH

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JUST A WALK IN THE PARK

This is another example of my work paradigm: I begin by pouring large areas of paint, let them run to form interesting shapes, control somewhat minimally; then look at the work for a number of hours - or days - just to allow the shapes to suggest a Direction. Let Zen do the heavy lifting.

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THE END OF WINTER’S TALE

The End of Winter's Tale (part of a series) is influenced and inspired by the works of Andrew Wyeth who steadfastly painted where he lived. Each of my landscapes contain a subtle lie however, in this case the welcome burial of a horrendously difficult Minnesota Winter ~ 2011.

KRIEGSBILDER

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I am not an expert on the German language by any standard, but I wanted to say as a title: Portraits of War, and in this case, not just any specific war, but all war - this is your hero and your victim, all put together by a watercolor painting and a stock photo.

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THE END OF THE ROAD

This collection would not be complete without a painting that pays tribute to the Quixote. He and his sidekick, Sancho, have arrived at Purgatory (Creek, in Eden Prairie). The sun is setting on his windmills. His tilting days are over. It has indeed been a journey worth telling...

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DANCE SYMPHONY

Because I am a bit of a music lover, I find myself naming certain pieces by borrowing from the world's master composers, all the way from Jim Morrison to Aaron Copland. This piece, once completed, reminded me of one of Copland's shorter and very sprightly symphonic works. Not sure he'd approve.

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THE BURDEN OFEVOLUTIONARY MISTAKES

Many images when into the making of this piece, including a couple of photos I took in the natural world, a NASA photo of the earth, a figure I created in Poser 5 (the head is a stump however) and finally: a backdrop by da Vinci.

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THE RETURN OF POLYPHEMUS

The various media elements really separate themselves quite nicely here. I lucked upon a female Polyphemus moth whose stomach is now full of eggs. (That's quite another story!) A very textural watercolor painting forms the backdrop, and Poser 5 created the figure. It's that simple, but not really!

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FESTIVE LANDSCAPE

I oftentimes begin a painting by an intuitive letting-go of poured paint. Using gravity, I can control some of the directional movement of the watercolor. Textures are achieved in a number of ways. Then, I may add something quite realistic - boat, waterfalls (of white gesso)...or I may not.

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NATURE’S INQUISITION

What would happen if Mother Nature carried out an Inquisition on the ecological iniquities of mankind? We have been on our 4.5 billion-year old planet for 1 one-hundredth of 1% of its history. Our effect has been devastating. The eye at the top is looking for you.

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SNEAK A PEAK

Sometimes I do pieces I really cannot understand ~ and yet, here they are! Most certainly, it's a testament to my unbounded sense of humor. The fountain I found at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and the background is a watercolor painting, sent through the wringer with Photoshop's liquify and blending tools.

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WE ARE NOT OUTOF THE WOODS

I always thought is rather silly that the US would deem itself safe from terrorism, once Bin Laden was out of the way. On the contrary, I believe, the US has spawned perhaps thousands of Bin Ladens, just from our presence on foreign soil, waring or not.

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NIGHT VISITORS

There is an old, historically preserved farm house over by Staring Lake in Eden Prairie: the Cummings House. I shot the house from a bevy of angles and started twisting and mixing them in Photoshop. As a background I used a personal photo of the deep dark woods near by. It won't scare anybody!

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A TIME TO PLAY

This digitally worked painting is very close to the original watercolor in texture and visual nature. I simply tweaked the colors in Photoshop to give me a pleasing but distinct color feel. This is one of those rare times I employed black gesso and acrylic gel medium to enhance the colors, texturally.

THE EYE OF OROZCO

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Typically, most of my mixed media pieces use a watercolor painting as a foundation. The painting, in my opinion, may not be able to stand on it own. It is then manipulated with any number of digital tools, from cameras to image editing software. Orozco, a 20th century Mexican painter, is a favorite of mine.

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SOUTHERLY WINDS TODAY

I have photographed this "thing" - I think it's the rotted effects of a huge tree trunk - for many years. During January this year, I noticed it had taken on human face qualities. With a couple of tools in Photoshop, I brought the face to fruition. And it had a wind-beaten feel.

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THE BIRCH ISLAND LINE

As a part-time school bus driver for the district of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, my current routes take me over this quaint, old track about a half-dozen times a day. It was particularly enchanting in late Fall, when a thin layer of snow combined with the lingering Autumn colors, and the setting sun.

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PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON

Watercolor and white gesso make up the majority of this sunny watercolor. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn would form the complete title, although in this case, the lower animal truly resembles a baby bull moose, native to northern Minnesota. Again, the name was applied after the piece was almost complete.

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PARTY DISLOYALTY

This Mixed Media piece was completed on the eve of the 2010 Congressional elections - a truly ridiculous referendum on Obama's performance. It's a satire on how people can fickly change their belief foundations overnight, just to render the president even more powerless in his quest to right our country's wrongs.

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ESHINALIEN 11

On my website at Deviant Art, I feature an ongoing series called My Aliens, My Friends. These odd critters are created primarily using a watercolor painting and/or a photograph. To his particular alien, I've ascribed a name which sounds like the word 'Asian' - in fact an old Asian of immense wisdom.

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TWO’S COMPANY THREE’S A MURDER

I love crows, but in Eden Prairie, it's getting to look a lot like Hitchcock's The Birds. They're multiplying, and perhaps global climate change is the culprit. A flock of sheep, a gaggle of geese and...a Murder of Crows. Seems a little unfair. Let's hope it's not prophetic.

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THE ANSWER TO HAYFEVER

Once again, a watercolor painting is at the base of this piece. Skulls are easy to find, but the flowing hair? That came froma photo I sneaked of a girl as we were crossing the Straits of Mackinac - a windy place it is. And there is no pollen in the air.

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WHEN GARGOYLES AREN’T SCARY ENOUGH

I really would like most of my viewers NOT to think of me as a so-called Dark Artist. I simply cannot BE a dark artist. I think humor is, in fact, the thread that holds my work together. Even my grotesque characters, created in Poser 5, have a certain silliness about them.

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THE BUZZ ABOUT DOLLY

A large and quite dead insect had perished in the back window ledge of my car. And as I was saying: A mixed-media artist has to be scanning all the time for visual material. I photographed the insect at various angles and...the piece did itself. You might ask yourself: Who's Dolly?

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COAGULA

This ghastly aberration visualizes how I feel on tax day. The year: 2009, April 15, and the CEO's of major and guilty banks had just voted themselves millions in bonuses (they just never give up!) and finally - due to enormous response - Obama put a stop to it...for the moment.

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WE ARE OUT OF THE WOODS

I do not consider myself a professional photographer. But I do have a considerable collection of photos I've taken as a photo enthusiast that either stand on their own, or stand up well under some manipulation, in this case, using Photoshop, that great unifying software which, by purchasing, is sending millions into bankruptcy.

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The original title of this Alien Series piece was The Child Within Me. Several of my Aliens are born out of photos I take on walks, in this case: an gangly-shaped tree trunk, ultimately manipulated in Photoshop. All I added was a stock photo of just the right doll.

ALIEN DOLL