Richard Hawk is an internationally collected artist living and working in San Diego, California. A figurative painter on canvas and paper, he also works in special oxidation techniques on copper.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

My work at this time makes extensive use of the oxidation of copper to create the underlying composition on which to paint. Copper is capable of extraordinary color, textural variation, and naturalistic character when oxidized - that is, exposed to certain natural acidic catalysts.

These oxidation effects are difficult to control and master. In fact, mastering the materials fully in the usual sense is impossible. Striving to do so, however, results in a co creative visual poetry that keeps me coming back for more.

In observing, exploring, and trying to understand life and art, I have come to realize that I am attracted to the uncontrollable. More specifically, I am drawn to that difficult sector where the controlled and the uncontrollable meet. Exciting things happen there.

When it comes to the painting part of these works, rapid alla prima painting, which forces reliance on internalized knowledge and instinct rather than cognitive processes, perpetuates the unbridled character of the work.

Paradoxically, planning and design and specific intentions for the end result of the work are very much in play. Efforts at control are tempered with great respect for – even pursuit of – the accidental.

Ideally in every creative work, a balance is struck between the intention of artistic control and the previously unimagined results of magnificent forces beyond those of the artist. This is co creation at its best.

 

See also COPPERHAND Studio