About the Artist

Richard VanGogh
VanGogh Ink.
P.O.Box# 14-2075
Coral Gables, FL 33114

Phone: 305-490-4005
eMail: minnow@aloha.net
Website: www.RichardVanGogh.com

Richard VanGogh was born in 1957 in West Chester, PA. From his earliest years, he recognized his need to create art. His college years were spent at the Philadelphia College of Art and the California College of Arts and Crafts, receiving a BFA in 1983. He continued work towards a MFA at both C.C.A.C. and the University of Hawaii.

He has participated in numerous shows in Pennsylvania, California and Hawaii and has works in private collections through out the United States.

Richard has been a member of the Association of Hawaii Artists, the Contemporary Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and on Maui, the Lahaina Arts Society and the Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center. The Miami Design Preservation League and the Bass Museum in Miami Beach. Presently a member of Guild Hall Gallery in Key West and showing work in Miami and South Florida.

Richard’s colorful acrylic paintings of primarily urban landscapes are intentionally simple in color and form. These paintings are of real places but made less complex, more inviting and happier. Whether playful and bright or cool and pastel, they are meant to relay a simple understanding of the real thing. Urban is neither bad nor ugly. Richard believes in the urban paradise rather than the urban jungle.

“I do not attempt photo-realism; that’s for cameras! What I want to do with paint is to take places I already love, especially Art Deco or older buildings and hotels, and make others feel the joy and beauty I find there.”

His paintings make people say that they can “step into them,” that they “can feel a breeze,” or sense that “it just rained.” His paintings are uncluttered with a touch of whimsy. Having lived in both Florida and Hawaii, the tropics flavor all his work. “I am so happy when I see my art making others feel happy or relaxed. I believe creativity is a gift to me and painting is my gift back. All I have to do is coax the paint out of the jars and onto the canvas!”