Richard Herman

Richard Herman (b. 1965) is a self-taught artist who began experimenting with oil painting in his early teens. Having a strong interest in western art history, he initially learned his craft by studying the paintings of the Northern European Renaissance. Seeking to recreate the crisp form and transparent atmosphere seen in panels by artists such as Jan Van Eyck and Rogier Van Der Wyden, he worked out the basic technique of that period, and then applied it to his own themes. This technique involved laying successive layers of tinted glaze over high contrast monochrome under painting. Compositions were based on detailed drawings made from a combination of direct observation and memory.

After working with figure based allegorical scenes in this way for several years, the landscape elements in his paintings came forward as the main subject of his work. In his late twenties, Herman underwent a shift in perspective that brought into focus the dynamic uncertainty of the world around him. Feeling impatient with his medium and wanting to depict this emerging perception, he dispensed with drawing and carefully arranged compositions. Using a spontaneous wet-on-wet approach that drew inspiration from the Chinese and Japanese traditions of painting and calligraphy, he explored a flowing environment of clouds, geology, and watercourses.

His cloud series became a signature motif during this period. Herman’s work over the last decade brings together the lessons of both earlier periods into what has become his mature landscape style. He is now exploring the idea and history of the “Sublime Landscape,” and is once again introducing figures and narrative into some paintings.