Interview
Ralph Wilkinson
Ralph earned his first degree from Rutgers where he majored in art after realizing his passion for mathematics died. His masters degree is from Appalachian State University in art education and he completed his mathematics degree to give him a career teaching high school math. With his teaching credentials, he taught both art and math for 38 years. He loved sharing his art and encouraging theirs. Now, he can devote the time and energy to his first love of pushing colors on canvas. He started when home from college during summer when his mom shared her oil set and he tried to paint his first lake reflection. He’s always been fascinated by what light does and how colors create emotional responses. His passion has always been in making the best color to express his feelings of joy admiring this miracle of our planet. His pleasure comes from finding another way to display our grand planet for all its pure beauty.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“My mother was dabbling with oil painting, and I was home from college and quite bored. After studying Art History that previous year and seeing all those impressionistic paintings, I had to try one for myself. I sat by a lake and tree and started my journey of capturing light and space with an emphasis on great color and texture to express my emotions towards our beautiful planet. That fall, I tried my first drawing class at Rutgers and found it instantly rewarding studying under a quality artist, Claude Pritchard. He taught me the essentials of a quality work of art early and I've tried to hold true to those principles throughout my 50 years of trying to capture just the right composition and colors to feel the joy of having the light and space we bathe in every day. Then, I finished a masters in art at ASU in Boone, NC. There, my work with color and getting deeper into the ideas of what light actually is and how I will develop my meditations to find an inner light to guide my work. It has been this search for the inner light and living and awakened life that has brought me to making art that truly surprises even me this day.”
What inspires you?
“Walks with trees and mountains and bright skies to show me the raw beauty which lies all around us on this glorious planet. Playing Golf is actually part of this because then you provide a fun scenario for enjoying this wonderful incredible creation. My work all comes from this life of wanting to be as close to nature and God as possible, because that's all there really is after all.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“Producing an emotional response from my viewers for the love of our planet and how light and space have been created for us on this stage we must honor and protect much better. It's the only one we will have and it's time to get serious about doing all that we can to protect it. I hope my work is a daily inspirational message of simply, "Hey, this is one very incredible and beautiful planet, let’s protect it better for future generations. It’s time.”
“My work all comes from this life of wanting to be as close to nature and God as possible, because that's all there really is after all.”
How would you describe your work?
“Impressionistic style with my own authentic twist. My study of Monet comes through in many of my pieces because I still marvel at what he was able to do with color and capturing texture and atmosphere. I may start my paintings always with a photo but before I long I don't use it and let the work inform my next steps. I see the light and space unfold in the work after first layer and let my imagination take over for how to maximize the emotions of feeling beautiful things bathed in soft light.”
Which artists influence you most?
“All the impressionists but mostly Van Gogh and Monet. They all wanted to be close to nature and realize the beauty of this creation, I also loved Leonardo because he taught me two very powerful ideas about making art. Those ideas are that first we must realize the aim is to produce emotions in our viewer that are worthy of our time and effort. From this I accepted that having to think about what the work means has NO interest for me. Next he made a point I never heard so well put before and that is the power of realizing layers of paint and what can happen as we put many thin layers of paint over other colors, we keep getting closer to what the work really needs. This trick of using layers and I mean layers came from my study of Leonardo Da Vinci.”
What is your creative process like?
“I start with getting a great photo to work from and then grab only what I want to make the final composition. I work extra long to get the colors I want on the first layer. Then, I stop looking at the photo after the first layer and let the work dictate what will bring out the most light and space with the most emotional colors and textures. I let the work tell me as I study it on the wall for days and sometimes weeks. All of a sudden, I know exactly what it needs and it happens in an hour or so. The final darks and brights get laid in.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“To inspire all of us recognize the values that we all most treasure and to let those ideas help us all be more creative and give back to the world instead of so much taking.”
