ArtistsNetwork.com 49ABOUT THE ARTIST
Richard Schmid, who holds
a doctorate in fine art, has been
the focus of 50 one-man shows. He’s
a recipient of the John Singer Sargent
Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and
his masterwork, Abbotsford House
was presented to Queen Elizabeth II
at the reopening ceremony of
Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott,
in Melrose, Scotland. The artist
currently lives in New Hampshire with
his wife, painter Nancy Guzik.SCHMID’S VIDEOS AND BOOKS, INCLUDING
HIS LATEST RELEASE, MY STILL LIFE ART,
ARE AVAILABLE AT HIS WEBSITE,
RICHARDSCHMID.COM.Schmid, the Teacher
As an aspiring artist, my time painting with Schmid was the greatest asset I could
have imagined. He spared nothing in sharing his wisdom on painting, life and the
arts, and he off ered it all with such kindness. Schmid’s approach—opening our
eyes to seeing the subject in its simplest terms—was revolutionary. His insistence
on accurate values, edges (as your eyes see them) and color temperatures to turn
form are still the foundation of what I try to pass along to my students. I hope that
I can do so with the same unselfi shness that he has modeled.
—Daniel Gerhartz (danielgerhartz.com), a former student
create a highly designed version of it
(see Workings of Imaginaton, page 45).
In real life, the backdrop, as shown
in the photo of my subject and the
painting together, is a rough piece of
cardboard. I envisioned a silken back-
ground for my painting, like that of a
Japanese or Chinese screen rendering.
The evening before, I prepared
my canvas by giving it a transparent
tone to simulate the silken look I was
after. I used a mixture of transparent
oxide brown and viridian thinned with
Mayer’s medium [artist Ralph Mayer’s
recipe of one part stand oil, one part
damar and five parts pure spirits of
turpentine]. When first applied, this
was very dark, but I didn’t start rub-
bing it to the lighter state immediately;
I waited until the turpentine had
evaporated to the point where I could
control the values selectively. In this
case, I wanted darker values at the top
of my canvas and lighter at the bottom.The completed fantasy, while selec-
tively constructed and painted from
real life, is a combination of what was
there, what could have been there,
and, by their absence, all the things
I chose not to include.
Imagination is like going on a trip
through a world of possibilities. It’s the
very core of creativity. It’s only with an
imagination that people’s minds can
take flight and look at possibilities—
andthenmakethemhappen.Louise B. Hafesh is an award-winning
artist and frequent contributor to Artists
Magazine. See her work at louisebhafesh.
com and paintersportal.blogspot.com.