We were lucky to catch up with John Richards recently and have shared our conversation below.

JOHN, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Having been a High School Physics Teacher, art was secondary in my life until I started looking at museum pieces; they impressed me and interested me tremendously. I started drawing and painting during my free time and when I retired from teaching in 2004, I sold my first painting, beginning this quest. As time went on, my wife kept telling me to take lessons to hone my skills. I resisted for some time but eventually took some workshops with established artists…and the rest is history. For those interested in becoming good artists, I can’t say enough, “Learn from the best artists you can afford.” While you may have talent, it’s imperative to learn the skills to let that talent blossom.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I taught High School Physics for 35 years, retiring in 2004. For a long time, aside from my job, I was fascinated with the process great artists use to produce their beautiful works. Initially I was mesmerized by the TV-how to-artists like Bill Alexander and Bob Ross but soon graduated to a love of the Hudson River School of Artists. Being lucky enough to live in Williamstown, MA, I was able to frequent the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum. It was there that I became aware of the actual works of Sargent, Homer, Remington, Renoir, and Monet as well as others. The paintings were wonderful! One thing that impressed me was that I was looking at the thoughts and actions of a person that was no longer alive. It’s a form of immortality.

In my art career (I paint in oils on linen mounted panels), I have sold in excess of 400 paintings; I am very proud of that. But moreso, it’s very satisfying to know that someone likes your creation enough to hang it on their wall and look at it every day.
And for me, making people happy as they view a painting of mine is the most important goal.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think it’s the fact that collectors become happy viewing my paintings. Viewing art can be an illusive endeavor; as Degas said, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” That idea imbues every painting with a mystery for the viewer…what was the artist attempting to accomplish? Why did he/she use this color here and that color there?

Obviously, there’s a lot of satisfaction in the accolades and compliments people gives one on one’s artwork. That’s just human nature. With paintings that seems to go a long way towards being accepted as a good and talented person.

Finally, there’s a strong sense of reward when one achieves a goal like completing a painting. It’s a challenge, one which artists gladly accept and are happy to overcome it. And sometimes that challenge results in failure; sometimes an artist simply can’t succeed in doing what you want to. When that happens, you simply put it in the “burn pile” and try again!

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Without doubt, the number one thing I wish I had done earlier in my career, is to have learned from, studied with, and picked the brain of accomplished artists. When people laud your native talents as an artist, it’s easy to think, “Hey, I can do this; I just have to keep doing it.” But that allows you to go only so far. You can learn technique, ideas, and philosophy from good artists. They can show you tricks which will enable you to accomplish your goal in a shorter time.

Of course, the media today makes that much easier…the instructional videos available today are phenomenal aids to good painting. I do wish we had them 30 years ago. But the advice and sentiment you get from working with an established artist is beyond compare – you can ask them questions and hear their answers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artontherun772.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/51MooseRun
• Linkedin: JOHN RICHARDS
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/JRichardsjr/

Image Credits

JOHN RICHARDS.