Gloucester Harbor by James Richards

James Richards has some downright jaw dropping paintings on his website and on his Facebook page. Isn’t Gloucester Harbor absolutely incredible? The looseness of the strokes is out of this world. The colors are out of this world. His ability to get rid of all the unimportant “stuff” in the actual landscape amazes me. He left what was interesting and downright GORGEOUS! It wasn’t easy to choose only one painting, each and every one is so good! I love when an artist posts photos of what they’re painting. It makes them (the artist) kind of like a magician to me. It’s magical how they portray what they see so differently and so much better than it is!

Here is the photo of what James painted (from his Facebook page) – Now do you see what I mean?! Jaw dropping, right? Look how he gave the painting some twists and turns and not boring straight lines everywhere… no little stuff all over the place, oh heavy sigh, I can tell you mine would be quite different… it would be straight lines and all the little stuff, yuck yuck yuck. Why don’t you paint like the paintings you like I wonder? Well, I guess it all starts with picking up a brush… (I hear ya Ken! hee):

I love this little blip about James Richards (from his website):

Every time I go out to paint, I’m amazed at the beauty, 
complexity, and originality of God’s creation. Every 
day is unique and offers different challenges and 
opportunities for the artist. Being true to these 
differences, accurately mixing the appropriate color, 
value, and relationship I see before me achieves a 
result of a certain realness in the painting.
In painting, light is always the main theme of my work. 
Light gives form, color, and atmosphere to everything 
we see. Without it, we would see nothing.
Thus, as it is in the natural world, so it is in our 
spiritual world. Light gives meaning, reason, and 
purpose to our existence. In nature, the source of 
light is the sun. In our spirit, the source of light is 
God’s Son, Jesus Christ. 
My entire life has been a search for truth. Until I 
learned of Jesus and asked him into my life, I existed 
in the darkness of my own interpretation of life. As 
Jesus filled me with his spirit, he has filled my life with 
the light of God and an understanding of truth. 
With this talent God has given me, He has also given 
me vision. A vision to see the glory of God in His 
creation. This is why I paint.

May God bless you in your journey through life, and 
may the light of Jesus shine through you.

What a great guy! Give his website a look and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!