rickreeseart.com is redesigned.

After way too long, rickreeseart.com if FINALLy back online. Its a long story but I let it lapse momentarily years ago and someone bought it and tried to get me to buy it back. I didn't and waited until they ditched it. But here is a link for anyone interested. I may start contributing to this blog every once in a while again...we'll see.

New painting in the works

Thought I'd post a snapshot of the painting I've been working on for anyone interested. Color is screwed up of course. Its about 5' square. Getting used to the light in the "studio" attached to the back of my house. Its basically a hot little tin can but big enough to work in. I'm not sure anyone reads this blog as I post so infrequently but here it is.

One of my favorite people and one of very very few that I considered a true friend passed away. I turned on my computer to work this morning and turned on my chat window to send him an inappropriate good morning (as is the norm) and of course he is not logged in. In a very recent conversation I got the nerve to tell Dave how much I love him and I'm so glad I did in hindsight. I'm gonna miss the conversations we have, the easy laughs, and the comfort of knowing I can lean on you when I need advice! The world is worse off without you, and so am I. Heres a few of his drawings that crack me up to this day. This was Dave at his best. Drawing bored expressions that just killed me. He could even make a sheep look bored. It was priceless. He kept me sane at work and made me laugh at the absurdity of it all with a simple cartoon...a rare talent.

Just found this

I just found this picture from a few years ago. Lisa doing her best Ms. Kwan impression (and it was good). I miss having her barge my classes at school...

failed but fun

I never really got much further with these cactus shaped things but heres a painting I started in the summer and lost interest in...

Rick Reese and Harry Diaz - New Work

A painting for the brother of a friend

Heres a newish painting with an oldish element in it. Been a long time since I painted to be honest so this was a good ice breaker and now I'm in the mood to work on the new stuff for the show in august.

A new sketch...

I'm finally going to get started on a series of paintings along these lines. Curious to see what happens when I change up the materials I usually work with. Should be an interesting and frustrating experiment but I need to change up the medium and the subject matter. Things get too comfortable and predictable.

Digital sketch-something to do

When I was young my buddy Buck and I used to go spend the day at this place in the summer way up the McCloud arm of Lake Shasta. Deep green swimming hole, big fish and angry locals. Rarely a soul in sight. I miss the company and the place.

Big Illustration Party Time

Josh and Kevin asked me to talk about art theory and writing artist's statements for their podcast Big Illustration Party Time. It was fun and I felt like a jerk for monopolizing most of the time but if you're interested in a listen heres a link.

http://www.illustrationparty.com

I have no idea how to make that actually clickable...

found this recently

Found an old drawing that was sent off to a friend on the east coast a while back. This was inspired by an artist named Robin Earles who is a really great draftsperson (if thats a word). Here a link to her old site (not updated in a few years). Values are blown out but I think its still fun to look at.

http://www.robinearles.com

newish drawing+digital collage concept

Kicking around ideas for a new series of paintings. Thought I'd post it in case anyone out there is interested. I don't usually do any preliminary sketches but I'm trying to get the rust out of my brain before I start. We'll see where it leads.

test...test...

Its been a really long time since I posted anything on this. But I thought I'd maybe start doing that again, for few reasons. One being that some douche bought my URL when I let it lapse. I would never write something as lame as "Art for the People" on my website. So to that guy...you're a leech for snagging my site and using my name for your own gain...enjoy that special place in hell reserved for "people" like yourself.

I haven't been posting things and updating my site because I've been teaching A LOT more than normal and have been taking a lot of commercial work that has been keeping me busy none of which I shall post. That said I'll start posting here again until I come up with a clever new name and get the ol' website back up again.

In the meantime hers a page out of my sketchbook...got a new brush pen and was just doodling...its fun and I think I'll learn to like the thing.

Also have a show coming up in orange county I'll post a new piece or two shortly...

Some fins for Life Rolls On Foundation

Got asked to paint some fins for the Life Rolls On Foundation recently. They'll auction them off for a fundraiser they're having. A serious honor for me to contribute, thanks Matt!

here you go Owen

Undisclosed sketch for undisclosed client that is now probably not going to get made anyway...Anyway this is usually the style I try to draw in for the kids :)

Hey all

Apologies for the Tom Reese interview, I think the file was too big to upload...I've been freelancing a lot more lately and haven't had any time to paint but I do have a new (as in unpainted) panel in the garage here that I'll work on over the next month or so and will post pics of the progress.

a drawing colored in photoshop

drew this while watchng tv tonight, liked it, colored with pink and yellow in photoshop.

Committed, perhaps overly.

This is going into a group show at Applegate Gallery on Dec. 18th along with another painting. Should be fun. I'll post the info soon. I initially was going to take pics of the evolution of the painting and post them periodically but lost interest so here it is finished! - the colors look drab online...much more saturated in person~sigh.

A short interview

Heres a short little interview I did this summer for the Design for Humanity event. Pretty neat.

Dizzy boy

I'm smitten by this image so I keep remaking it in different media. This is an etching and aquatint number. I only got a couple good ones because it was impossible to get good registration so the embossed edge of the plates looked rather crappy. Anyway heres a good one.