"Hilo Bay" Print - Tom Richasser

"Hilo Bay" Print by Tom Richasser Published by Cunningham Gallery, December 1988 all rights reserved Image height: 15" Image width: 26" Paper height: 11.5" Paper width: 24" Says the artist, "Since 1990 I have been living and painting in Sonoma County in northern California. The rugged coastal scenery, pastoral rolling hills and ancient redwoods provide the ideal environment, since my primary motivation and subject matter is the natural world. I am originally from New York and my early artistic development was infuenced by many hours spent at the Met and other museums where I was enchanted by the works of Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Hudson River painters. It was the beginning of a life-long fascination with the world of realist oil painting. It was my passion for surfing and diving that eventually lead me to the Island of Hawaii where I studied art at the University of Hawaii, ran a stained and etched glass company and built a home. During this fifteen-year period I continued to develop my painting skills and began attracting the attention of galleries and collectors. My love of the ocean was translated into a series of very large, photo-realistic wave portraits. I believe these paintings capture the visual excitement that emanates from sparkling, breaking waves and conveys my personal vision of the wave-form as a symbol of life energy. Although I do quite a bit of landscape painting these days, the ocean continues to be my subject of choice and my style has become more flowing and painterly. The looser brushwork tends to more accurately capture the fluidity of waves crashing into rocks. My work has been featured on several television programs and can be found in many private and corporate collections. I am represented by several galleries in California and Hawaii and I am available for selected commissions."