RICHARD FRITZ
Rich is an artist in the colorist tradition, and has been interested in visual arts since childhood. Early vision problems energized his visual imagination and appreciation of color and abstraction. He started oil painting at age 12, and with the encouragement of a generous neighbor, appropriate visual refraction, and a library of art references, set out to discover his artistic vision. Guideposts along the way included impressionists (Gauguin and van Gogh), the Cone collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Klee, Kandinsky, Wolf Kahn, fauvists, expressionists, and the Easton art scene with its annual influx of world-class plein-air artists.
This mixture of influences has resulted in an artistic vision that is colorist, abstracted yet representational, and seeks to create harmonies with color and form. His principal subject is the landscape of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, developed in a way that features color harmonies. He often begins with plein-air oil painting, taking inspiration from his surroundings in the abbreviated 2-3 hour plein-air format. He also favors the immediacy of pastel studies to explore composition and color relationships. Plein-air works may be further developed in the studio, or may become jumping-off points for larger works.