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November Issue
2008
Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC, Features
Works by Rich Nelson
Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC, will present
the exhibit, Rich Nelson- Recent Work, on view from Nov.
4 - 15, 2008.
This show will feature the many sides of this artist's work; landscape oil paintings of the foothills of the Blue Ridge and paintings from his travels to the South Carolina coast and elsewhere. It will also feature recent still life and figurative work, and of course a few portraits. There are a number of "series" paintings; 4 large river paintings, 9 sunrise pieces from the past summer, 9 still life paintings featuring early 20th century North Carolina pottery, and 3 large outdoor morning portraits of his wife Kim. The show features exclusively new work; none of the pieces in the exhibit have been shown in the area.
You can see a video of one of the portraits of Kim painted from start to finish on Youtube. Search Youtube for Rich Nelson, or go to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNwxoZJwQzc).
This artist strives to do museum quality work that will be around long after he and his subjects have left this world. He has won a number of honors in the last year including 2nd Place in the Portrait Society Of America's 2008 Outdoor Portrait Competition, First Place in Wickwire Gallery's City Of Four Seasons/Connemara Visions Competition, and Best Of Show in Charleston's Southern Light Paint Out.
Nelson's work has been featured this year in American Artist, American Art Collector, International Artist, and The Portrait Society Of America's magazine, and he is to be listed in the next Who's Who in American Art. Collectors who purchase his work do so not only because they appreciate it, but because his career so far indicates that interest in his work will continue to grow.
Nelson, his wife, and three young children reside in Tryon. Though portraiture is a major part of his career, he also loves painting landscape, still life, and figurative gallery pieces. He is endlessly fascinated by people, places, and things and considers it a privilege and a challenge to capture some aspect of their essence on canvas. All of this work (except some portraiture) is done exclusively from life.
"I work toward 'painterly realism'; good drawing and composition, rendered with strong natural color, in such a way that you can still 'sense' or 'feel' the paint. The effect of this process is that the subject begins to artfully reveal itself to me and hopefully, the viewer".
Hailing from Detroit, MI, Nelson earned his BFA from the College Of Creative Studies in 1988. It was at CCS that he developed his love of painting, drawing, figurative art, and art history. He has been working as an artist ever since, initially as an illustrator, then as a portrait artist, gallery artist, and instructor. Nelson has sold over 100 gallery paintings, and delivered over 200 commissioned portraits.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/859-2828 or visit (www.upstairsartspace.org).
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