The task of locating and securing a symbol that mirrors the event is not an easy one. There are many perils on the way, principal among them being the nervous system, which is incapable of abstracting an event’s infinite number of characteristics. The key issue for me then in the painting process is accepting this limitation of the nervous system and using it efficiently.

Richard Stodart

Born in Trinidad, the West Indies, in 1945, Richard moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1968, where he received a diploma in Radio and TV Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University). Shortly afterwards, he became a Canadian citizen. In 1972 he began his painting career, and in 1975 was awarded a Canada Council Grant in recongition of a series of figurative paintings.

In 1976 Richard moved to Northern California where he married Nancy Lloyd Jones, a Southern belle from Virginia. Together, they studied for nine years with the Western born spiritual teacher, Adi Da Kalki. During this time Richard painted a series of spiritual teachers of the great spritual traditions, studied for nine weeks with Michele Cassou of The Painting Experience, and produced work on commission for a well-known San Francisco designer.

From 1985 to 1989 Richard used The Painting Experience approach of immediacy to find figurative, archetypal symbols of a magic, mythic nature. At the end of 1989 he set aside the timeless magic and temporic mythic world of the figure for the world of time through abstraction. Throughout the nineties Richard continued to explore abstraction using Taoist, Buddhist and Kabbalist teachings as inspiration.

Georg Feuerstein, author of The Shambala Encyclopedia of Yoga, says: “…here we encounter a painter in the image of the old school of visionary communicators of hard-won truths, who push themselves and their medium to the limits in order to convey essential meanings in the most pristine form possible...we can see the emergent arational-integral consciousness at work.”

Richard's book "Free and Easy Wandering", consisting of sixteen paintings, a meditation and related essays, is the result of this exploration. Richard’s work has appeared on magazine and book covers, music albums and packaging. His paintings are on permanent display at Gallery in the Woods in Vermont, and at the Open Secret Gallery in California. Richard lives in Virginia with his wife on a 64 acre farm on the Wicomico river.

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STATEMENT

In the painting process there are an infinite number of events to choose from, all with their unique characteristics or flavors. When I choose to state an event from nature, my imagination, or the world of ideas, my challenge is to locate and secure the essence of the event through all the means available to me.

The task of locating and securing a symbol that mirrors the event is not an easy one. There are many perils on the way, principal among them being the nervous system, which is incapable of abstracting an event’s infinite number of characteristics. The key issue for me then in the painting process is accepting this limitation of the nervous system and using it efficiently.

I begin by playing in the chaos of the event, abstracting those characteristics that I’m drawn to. These may change: a tree becomes a man, a woman the sky, empty space full. This play with abstraction continues until the nervous system relaxes from having to do so, and a stable symbol begins to stand naked before the event.

This is an exciting moment in the painting process; with a finite number of characteristics, the infinite event has been stated. I love this process.”

Richard Stodart