RICHARD ORIENT
Artist Statement
Richard Orient has spent the last two years living and working at his home in rural Dutchess County, New York. This country setting has continually inspired him, and the focus of this show of recent work is the landscape and woods outside his studio there. He describes the setting:
“There are two stands of woods out the door- one to the left and up the hill to the north, the other south and down to the field below. These wooded hills greet me every day. Pristine woods of soaring vertical trunks and thickets of tangled branches surround me. I have observed these woods throughout the last eight seasons. I’m captivated by this daily seeing."
The earlier works in this show are of wooded scenes, painted by the artist in his usual medium,
oil on canvas, focusing his gaze on distinct areas. Tree trunks predominate; little sky is seen. Light and shadow caress the vertical shafts, and a stillness pervade these paintings. Later works in the show shift focus to deeper woods and dense thickets. These paintings are filled with branches and trunks and tangled vines and begin to verge on the abstract. This inspired Orient to push further into an abstract series of drawings, later paintings, of an accumulation of tangled lines. Using acrylic and shellac ink, he created mazes of lines overlapping and crisscrossing, evoking the intricacies and dense ness of the wooded thickets. The artist observes:
“As the pandemic continued and complicated our lives, I found the woods to be an anchor, and painting the stillness and tangle of nature, both representational and abstracted, a soothing and inspirational experience.”
Richard Orient received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1977 and has lived and painted in the New York City area since then. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country. This is his 13th solo show at George Billis Gallery in New York City.
“There are two stands of woods out the door- one to the left and up the hill to the north, the other south and down to the field below. These wooded hills greet me every day. Pristine woods of soaring vertical trunks and thickets of tangled branches surround me. I have observed these woods throughout the last eight seasons. I’m captivated by this daily seeing."
The earlier works in this show are of wooded scenes, painted by the artist in his usual medium,
oil on canvas, focusing his gaze on distinct areas. Tree trunks predominate; little sky is seen. Light and shadow caress the vertical shafts, and a stillness pervade these paintings. Later works in the show shift focus to deeper woods and dense thickets. These paintings are filled with branches and trunks and tangled vines and begin to verge on the abstract. This inspired Orient to push further into an abstract series of drawings, later paintings, of an accumulation of tangled lines. Using acrylic and shellac ink, he created mazes of lines overlapping and crisscrossing, evoking the intricacies and dense ness of the wooded thickets. The artist observes:
“As the pandemic continued and complicated our lives, I found the woods to be an anchor, and painting the stillness and tangle of nature, both representational and abstracted, a soothing and inspirational experience.”
Richard Orient received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1977 and has lived and painted in the New York City area since then. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country. This is his 13th solo show at George Billis Gallery in New York City.
