42 Artists Magazine May 2020
Richard Schmid, widely regarded as one of America’s preeminent
painters and a great advocate of impressionistic realism, is revered
forhispainterlystyleandthelyricallypoeticqualityofhiswork.
Maestro,” as he’s affectionately known within the group,
stepped aside to work on a new book, My Still Life Art.
I connected with Schmid recently as he was preparing
to release that labor of love. In addition to answering
a few questions, the artist offered a peek into the pages
of his new book, which are filled with rich reproductions,
wonderful anecdotes and behind-the-process tell-alls.PAGES 40–41
April Roses
1999; oil on canvas,
18x24BELOW
Summer Lilies
2000; oil on canvas,
20x16The artist’s benchmark book on land-
scape and his two other bestsellers,
Alla Prima: Everything I Know About
Painting and Alla Prima II, are prac-
tically holy writ for those who paint
wet-into-wet. As a champion of the
Grand Manner, which he describes as
“a mingling of virtuosity and unre-
strained joy in art,” he has amassed
a following of who’s whos among
contemporary artists, including Scott
Burdick, Jeremy Lipking, Daniel Keys
and Lori Woodward.
“I never ‘became’ an artist, I was
an artist from the beginning,” says
Schmid. “My path was continuous.”
His earliest influences were his mater-
nal grandfather—the architectural
sculptor Julian Oates—and landscape
painter Gianni Cilfone. Subsequent
studies afforded him entrance at 18
into the American Academy of Art in
Chicago, one of the few U.S. schools
in the 1950s that offered a wide range
of courses in drawing and painting.
Schmid modestly speculates: “By sheer
luck (it seems now) I was accepted as
a student and immediately placed in
the advanced painting group under
William H. Mosby.”
Reflecting on the importance of
those early days, he says, “As the years
have gone by, I’ve come to realize the
magnitude and richness of the experi-
ence that I received. I haven’t the
slightest idea of why I understood it
all so clearly, but I did. And I have
always felt I was a custodian of that
knowledge rather than its owner.”
“Custodian” for sure, but a maven,
too. With his wife, painter Nancy
Guzik, Schmid founded a cadre of
like-minded, representational artists
known as the Putney Painters. For
more than 20 years, Schmid painted
alongside and was a mentor to its
select members, who met regularly in
a rustic red barn near the couple’s New
Hampshire home. Not long ago, “the