The Art of Self-Taught Painter Richard Ficker
The Compassionate Indifference
Richard Ficker is a self-taught painter whose work features imagery of beaches, oceans, and surreal figures blending into such landscapes. The artist’s works are detailed celebrations of colour and form, each one dreamlike in a way that invites the viewer in for a closer look.
River Sunset, oil and acrylic on canvas
I really appreciate the amount of colour and fine detail that goes into each of Richard’s artworks. The artist’s chosen set of motifs -- water, bright blue skies, and lush greenery -- demands a cool and vibrant colour palette that gives his portfolio an overall tropical aesthetic. The artist moves easily between scientific realism, as in paintings of sea creatures reminiscent of Lisa Baechtle, and surreal, psychedelic compositions that challenge the distinction between portrait and landscape painting.
Many of the artist’s works, especially those in the Mermaids and Such Gallery, express an illustrative aesthetic that would be at home on the cover of a fantasy novel. It seems that each of these paintings has a story behind it, full of well-realized characters and fantastic settings.
