Arlene Richman
(richmanpastels.com)
studied painting and
earned a bachelor’s degree
in the history of art at the
City College of New York.
She then studied fashion
design at the Fashion
Institute of Technology and
later earned a master’s
degree in the history of art
from Tufts University. She
has also studied at the
School of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, and the
Decordova Museum, and
has taken pastel workshops
from Jimmy Wright, Frank
Federico, Albert Handell and
Casey Klahn, among others.
She’s a signature member of
the Pastel Painter’s Society of
Cape Cod, the Connecticut
Pastel Society and the Pastel
Society of America, where
she serves on the executive
committee of the Board
of Governors. She’s also a
member of the Salmagundi
Club of New York.ABOVE
Endurance (20x20)
OPPOSITE
Look No Further
(28x28) interpreted as nascent life-forms waiting to poke through
the earth.
Another group of paintings suggests architectural
corners (see Startle Ref lex, page 56) albeit with shift-
ing perspective and planes. Rectangles with one curved
end might convey the impression of an arched passage
or doorway or cathedral window (see But You Can Never
Leave, page 57 and Look No Further, opposite). A zigzag
line in the domed end of these rectangles could be seen as
segments of stained glass or, as Richman has mused, the
spiky crown worn by the Statue of Liberty. “That image
emerged,” says Richman, “and I can relate to it; I can
engage with it. Because I’ve lived in New York, that is an
image that does have meaning for me, but when I put it
down on paper, I’m putting it down as a compositional ele-
ment, not because it’s the Statue of Liberty’s crown.”
Those compositional elements or “devices” that, with-
out the artist’s overt intent, suggest landscapes or corners
or windows/doorways, have enabled Richman to work
in series, exploring the permutations of these recurring
elements with the manipulation of mutable effects, such
as color, value, line and edges. Lately though, she’s been
attempting to become even more open, to abandon even
the uniting devices of a series (see
Endurance, above).
She explains, “I think every
composition—landscapes, still lifes,
portraits, whatever—they’re all
abstracts down deep. They all depend
on abstract formal conceptions—that
is, on composition, line, shape, value.
The trick to creating nonobjective
paintings is to put something down
on paper that you can’t name. Naming
is the bugaboo. Once you name your
compositional elements—tree, face,
ginger pot—you’re committed to
them as objects, and you strive to
make them as realistic and believ-
able as you can. It’s a slippery slope!
If named objects reveal themselves to
you at the end, that’s fine, but don’t
intend them.” PJHolly Davis is senior editor of The Artist’s
Magazine.ArtistsNetwork.com 59