(b. 1960) I am a painter whose work centers upon rural and small-town America and how the past is evidenced in the present-day. I am a full-time artist in Bellows Falls, Vermont — a former mill town overlaying a once-thriving Native American community on what is now the Connecticut River; born out of commerce, the landscape fundamentally altered by transportation and industry; surviving today in ways its founders never envisioned.
As Americans, the imagery and textures of iconic photographers such as Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans are as much a part of our cultural lexicon as the paintings of Edward Hopper, Joseph Stella or Franz Kline. My practice is grounded in those influences; I strive for the paintings to reside in an uneasy calm, halfway between a photograph and a dream.
My work is about the poetics of environments, of vanished economic drivers, and what remains today. Have things that were once of unimaginable importance disappeared? Have communities
that were marginalized or erased reemerged? What happens when the foundational elements of a place fundamentally change?
The metaphor of transportation is central to my work. I travel by rail whenever possible, watching the passing landscape, tracing the remnants of what was and how it shapes the present. For the last twenty years I have “apprenticed myself” to Bellows Falls, Vermont. I have learned its history, I have painted from it and for it. Thoreau wrote: “I have traveled a good deal in Concord;” similarly, I have traveled a good deal in Bellows Falls. I am now exploring processes and ideas in new, yet related, contexts in order to expand the scope of my practice.
Utilizing a variety of moderately unorthodox techniques, I manipulate paint with a window washer’s squeegee or impress the pattern of paper towels into a painted surface to evoke the halftone screens and Ben Day dots of classic photographic reproduction. My work plays upon familiar visual tropes that the viewer notes almost subconsciously.
I am deeply involved in village life and believe it fundamental to utilize one’s art to help drive economic redevelopment and community resilience. I have served as a village trustee, as treasurer of a group undertaking restoration of a historic Worcester Lunch Car, and created and currently operate a nonprofit, Rockingham Entertainment Development, working to help the local Opera House increase its viability as an economic engine for the community.
– Charlie Hunter
COLLECTIONS
Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Noble & Greenough School, Dedham, MA
Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Northampton, MA
Collection of Rachel Maddow and Susan Mikula
Collection of Logan Mankins
Preservation Trust of Vermont
Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society
PUBLICATIONS
Landscapes in Oil, Ken Salaz, Monacelli Press, 2019
Southwest Art, “10 New Painters”, January, 2019
Rule Breaking Landscapes, Streamline Art Videos, 2019
Artists on Art, “Landscape Painting or Rotting American Portrait?”, January, 2019
Alla Prima II, Richard Schmid, Stove Prairie Press, 2013
2018 Paintings (self), 2019
EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS
2018
Faculty – Plein Air Convention and Expo, Santa Fe, NM
Faculty – Scottsdale Artist School, Scottsdale, AZ
Faculty – Renaissance School of Art, Sarasota, FL
Solo show – Traveling Light – McLarry Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Solo show – Foster Art Gallery, Noble & Greenough School, Dedham, MA
Two person show – A Reverent Eye (with Jim Westphalen) – West Branch Gallery, Stowe, VT
2017
Faculty – Plein Air Convention and Expo, San Diego, CA
Faculty – Scottsdale Artist School, Scottsdale, AZ
Faculty – Renaissance School of Art, Sarasota, FL
First Place – Mountain Maryland Plein Air, Cumberland, MD, 6/16
Group show – AMERICAN MASTERS – Salamagundi Club, New York, NY
2016
Award of Excellence – Laguna Plein Air, Laguna Beach, CA
Collector’s Choice – Sedona Plein Air Invitational, Sedona, AZ
First Place – Mountain Maryland Plein Air, Cumberland, MD
Sense of the City Award – Olmsted Invitational Plein Air, Atlanta, GA
San Angelo Museum of Art Purchase Award – Plein Air Texas, San Angelo, TX
2015
BOXCARS: Railroad Imagery in Contemporary Realism – Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT (Curator)
Group show – Eyes on the Land – Shelburne Museum, Burlington, VT
Group show – AMERICAN MASTERS – Salamagundi Club, New York, NY
RAIL TOWN NOIR. Feature in VERMONT LIFE, Autumn, 2015
Artist’s Choice – Sedona Plein Air Invitational, Sedona, AZ 10/15.
2014
First Place – Plein Air Easton Quick Draw, Easton, MD
First Place – Easels in Frederick Quick Draw, Frederick, MD
Vanishing Landscapes Award – Plein Air Easton, Easton, MD
First Place – Wayne, PA Plein Air
Artists’ Choice – Paint the Town, Cranford, NJ
Faculty – Plein Air Convention and Expo, Monterey, CA
Richard Schmid ALLA PRIMA II – work featured in full-page spread
Group show – The Putney Painters – Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
