Trompe L’oeil

One of Richard’s latest pieces “Tale of the Silent Crow” was completed at the beginning of this year. It is just one of many in a series of trompe-l’oeil windowscapes with birds and other creatures involved. This one entails crows throughout the painting. Richard stated “I think crows are interesting; the one on the window ledge I photographed in a parking lot at the beach years ago. I like his pose and finally put him into one of my paintings. He seems to be trying to talk to the crow inside of the window, a decoy, the silent crow.” He went on to explain the detail and color used in this work. “On the perimeter of the window I used a different texture that I haven’t used before. I also cut 30 leaves out of canvas, painted each one, then attached them to the canvas. As you can see some of them (leaves) extending beyond the edge of the canvas.”

Title: Tale of the Silent Crow
Size: 48″ x 52″
Price: $8500.00

Title: Bird of a Different Feather
Size: 60″ x 36″
Price: $9200.00

Most of my windows are done as if the viewer were outside looking in at a still life, with a reflection of what’s outside. The reflection covers the upper section of the windows, and sometimes covers parts of the still life. This painting is different because I’ve painted the window panes as if they were broken to go with the broken brick around the window frame, I wanted the painting to look like a section of brick wall that has been torn out with a window in it. Ive created this painting by attaching smaller canvases to the sides of a larger one, and then framing in wood, more wood was then added. The wood was then carved and painted to make it look like old brick. I like the abstract shape of the painting. In the window is a collection of bird eggs, a cobalt blue bottle with feathers in it, and a strange looking antique wooden toy duck. There is a couple of Carolina wrens that have come in through the broken window. They are fussing at the strange looking duck as if accusing it of steeling the eggs. All of my windows have a story behind them… This one would start with “Once upon a time there was a bird of a different feather…” The rest of the story I leave up to the imagination of the viewer. This was the first painting that was finished after my cancer treatments and was shown in the 2014 ArtFields.