Richard Wood 13 Corey's MHP Littleton, NH 03561 603-444-1103 rwoodpaintings@yahoo.com *member since June, 2006

"Drawing and painting have always been a part of my life. My mother was a gifted artist and she would entertain me by sketching animals and faces for me as a child in Boston. In grammar school, my teacher asked me to do a soap sculpture for a contest. I didn't win the contest, but I had learned that I loved to create. After High School, I enlisted in the Navy, but the artist bug was still there. Later I studied comercial art at the Butera Art School in Boston and mechanical drafting and design at the Industrial Technical School. The next 15 years of my life were spent raising my family, as an electro/mechanical designer and technical illustrator. We moved to N.H. to live in the country,which we all loved.I have worked in N.H. as a draftsman, freelance designer and managed to sell some paintings and pen and ink drawings. I returned to school to get an Associate of Science Degree in Pulp and Paper Technology.I recently retired after 16 years at a paper mill in Vermont. Now that I am retired I spend my time looking for pictures to paint. My theory on art... Good paintings are paintings that make a connection to you such as looking at a winter scene and feeling the cold wind or at a seascape and smelling the ocean. It might be paintings of berrys that make your mouth water, or just a color or blending of colors that jogs something in your brain that you can't seem to remember. Sometimes the connection is obvious ( the cold wind, etc.). Sometimes it's more suttle where you may have feelings that you cannot explain. But a definate connection has been made on some level, whether it the conscious or the subconcious. This is what I think art is all about, making the connection. Recently I have been painting with a painting or palette knife.This is a very free, instintive way of painting. One that seems to be more openly creative than painting with a brush. This past summer I have been painting more on location, sometimes with a friend, Barbara Gray from Peacham,Vermont. She is a true knife painter and an honest critic. Watercolor painting is a new medium to me . I have just completed a watercolor course, taught by Lynn Driscoll of Franconia, New Hampshire.This was a very enjoyable course and I now consider watercolor painting as a new tool for expressing myself in art. I still see pictures in my mind that I want to paint and I find scenes in New Hampshire and Vermont, that call out to be painted or captured on canvas in a way that reflects my feeling for the scene.           My favorite quote; " Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after growing up." ......... Pablo Picasso

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