Out of my Mind

Richard Wilson

April 17 - June 14, 2025
Opening Reception: April 17, 5-7pm

About the Show

I have maintained a studio in Portland since 1980 and until 2021 I was associated with Tom Black Studio in NYC. In his studio I printed limited edition prints for artists and I also printed graphics for museums exhibits in NYC and throughout the Northeast.

Five years ago, I began spending more time in my studio working on what eventually became this group of paintings. It’s not always easy for one painting to lead to another, any more than for one dream to lead to another. I found a theme that traveled through many of these paintings in my history and attachment to water. I grew up on a lake in southern Maine, spent three years on a ship in the Navy, and have enjoyed swimming three days a week for over 30 years.

When I moved to Portland, I met my good friend Eddy Fitzpatrick and we went on canoe adventures every summer for 30 years, most often on Casco Bay. I see beauty in the organic patterns of the surface, and I appreciate the utility of the paths that water creates. The surface also hides a world that can’t easily be seen, a fear represented in bottomless water with only your head above the surface.

I try to make my artwork as real as I can. Not photographically real, but visually as convincing as I can by using the problems of gravity, perspective, light and shadow. I can manipulate these qualities to create a surreal effect. People can float, two planes can exist in one painting, or an impossible balance can occur. As long as there is a consistency, they can seem to be realistic in the painting.

In the painting Evening, two people can exist in different worlds, one is in the water and the other is on the water. Two planes are in the same painting in Evening News. A man is throwing a rock at a vertical panel in front of him like a video game. Time stops in the painting A Moment, and an impossible balance occurs. The man will sit on top of the waterfall forever. The world can be seen from the point of view of a fish in U.F.O.

The Portland paintings came from walks on the Eastern Prom. I first looked for a way to use the cruise ships as a source for a painting. I then discovered the cautionary tale of A Great View and North Street Overlook. I started with photos I took on my phone with these paintings because I wanted the setting to be as recognizable as possible.

Most of my artwork starts with a vague idea in my mind, and I try to develop it slowly like a photograph to tell a story as convincing as I can.

— Richard Wilson