The works produced in this exhibition represent a body of work produced over the last decade. In those ten years, my investigations have taken me through various ways of presenting a personal mythology within a figurative tradition. Although the images reflect the gradual maturation of technique and concept, many things remain constant. I am always moved by the natural world. A cloud formation can leave me transfixed. Sunlight in a forest can induce in me a state of euphoria. Shadows on snow can take my breath away. This is what moves me as a person and is reflected in my painting. The wildness of the western landscape is very much a part of me. I grew up in very diverse landscapes, but have lived the longest in the western United States. The highly dramatic nature of the western landscape has always inspired me, yet I can also be moved by the more settled, misty landscapes of the eastern United States.

I am intrigued by the suggestions of human habitation of those places, and am drawn to the debris, the fallen-down buildings, the remnants of cloth and bits of broken china left over. These elements suggest to me a drama of wide-ranging possibility. The figures I choose to inhabit those natural worlds should be as much a part of it as the trees and grasses. All of my images depict idealized spaces, even if those spaces are dilapidated tenements, or cold snowy expanses. I sometimes think our technology and manufactured comforts leave us unprepared for truly being a part of the natural world as we once were. I paint images of dramas unfolding, of people participating with nature and the mythic space within a human world.

As a narrative painter, realism is the best way to express what I want to say. I can create worlds or reinvent them, showing an alternate paradigm of possibility. I believe in the viability of the painted world, the window into another reality. Dramatic license in painting allows me to create an open narrative, a fragment of a plot still being formed by myself and the viewer. Visual clues lead the viewer through the painting and give access to the original concept of the image.

I aspire to storytelling, and it is through paint that those urges find their medium. The three "Dream" paintings, for example, are as much about dreaming of a place as actually being there. To me, the dream world is just as important as the waking world, because it can impart the significance of the subconscious.

Along with imagination, I employ straightforward painting skills. I still rely heavily on a mixture of visual aids for any given image. I use numerous photographs of both figures and various landscapes. I use actual painted studies done in the field, both in oil and watercolor, and I often work directly from a still-life set-up. All of these elements need to come together cohesively within a painting to allow for the believability of an image. The surface I paint on usually determines the way I approach the painting. Canvas allows for a looser effect, the warp and weft diffusing the brush strokes. When I work on a panel, however, my attitude is one of obsessive control, and the smooth surface of the wood can show incredible detail.

I am interested in achieving an illusion in paint which by its realism makes the worlds I create seem more accessible. The paintings in this exhibition serve as a time line for my progress as a painter and the evolution continues to be fulfilling and surprising and extremely satisfying

To see more of Ricki Klages's work contact us