Rick Clair

In Ricks World© Rick Clair

“When I was four years old, my parents gave me a box of crayons and a pencil box. I promptly ate the crayons and stabbed my brother in the ear with a pencil. I can still see the polychrome abstraction flowing through the clear plastic tube as my stomach was pumped, and hear the howls of pain from little bother Randall. In retrospect, I realize that these were defining moments—the visual artist must frequently look inward for inspiration, and the act of creation can often be expurgatory and somewhat violent.”

Oratorio© Rick Clair

Nearly forty years would pass before Rick sold his first painting at a downtown Juneau gallery in the early 1990s. What took so long? “Life got in the way. Plus, I had wanted to be a writer, so I‘d subjugated my ability to convey ideas in visual terms. And, as the absence of the sun in Juneau became more and more of an emotional issue for me, I realized that I would have to create my own color and light to nurture my psyche. Thus, the intensity of color in my paintings is inversely proportional to the weather—the greyer the day, the brighter my palette.”

The forests, mountains and maritime environs of southeast Alaska provide the backdrops for the imagery in Rick’s paintings; panoramas or intimate scenes populated by creatures of mythology and make-believe—mermaids, earth goddesses, ravens, red bears.

“I never let reality get in the way of a good idea. Balanced color and good composition are the only important considerations.”

Rick says that his entire artistic life, though brief, has been spent in isolation. “I work in a vacuum. My studio is a hobbit-hole where others seldom venture.”

But, he says, since life cannot exist in a vacuum, he is thankful that the artists at Juneau Artists Gallery have allowed him to join their talented and exclusive group.