Paintings by RICKI KLAGES
October 19th - November 23rd 2007

 

I have worked professionally as an artist for the past twenty years, and over time one thing has remained constant: the influence of landscape.  My paintings reflect the influence of the places I have seen, visited, or lived in.  Although I have lived for the past nine years in Laramie, Wyoming, the thirst for the input of new places, landscapes and other environments has been constant.  I have had the good fortune to live several years in Northern Italy.  In addition, I have spent summers and holidays in and around London, and the southwest of England.  All of these environments are referenced either directly or more subtly within my paintings. 

I paint from a desire for beauty and ‘otherness’.  Of transcendent movements that still occur in dreams, memory and magic moments in nature.  I want to capture the sense of routine and ritual; the sublime with the mundane, and how they can mix in equal parts. 

Incorporated within my paintings are straightforward landscape representation, dream imagery, intensive observation and subtly startling images that incorporate elements of magic, still life and the figure.  My current work, under the umbrella title of, “Wish You Were Here”, involves my constant wishing to be ‘elsewhere’.  I am a restless traveler and I am always missing the places I have left behind, yet always yearning for another place to go; a new adventure.  Metaphorically, the ‘rain’ of objects, which create a veil in front of the landscape background, reference tears and melancholy, and a slow and sometimes painful passage of time.

 

"Wish You Were Here (matches)" Oil on Canvas, 60 x 64"	"Wish You Were Here (glass)" Oil on Canvas, 60 x 64"	"Glastonburry Apples" Oil on Canvas 25 x 25"	"Fruits of Summer" Oil on Panel 24" x 24"

 

If you would like more information on Ricki Klages
please visit the artists page.