Dick Ranck is married to a retired Philadelphia School Teacher and has two grown daughters and two granddaughters. He makes his living as an artist.
He is blue to draw accurately, but generally puts traditional accuracy aside in pursuit of unscripted form. Grace of line and good use of space are important to him. When he is asked, he describes his work as Primitive. Which reflects his admiration for early cultures and their invention of art as answers to mystery.
"Over these many years I have explored myriad ideas of what excites me about great artists artists, alive and dead; how they think and see and create. Then using what I can and am able to canvas, wood, and paper. I am guided by brevity, whimsy, and what I imagine.
I rarely make preparatory studies or maquettes. I see blank canvas or wood from a tree as having a rich history to reveal, Hence, much is discovered and plenty is discarded or covered over. Most paintings are actually several leading to the last. Which the varied surfaces, pentimenti, of my paintings suggests. My floor is covered with wood chips that were once unsatisfactory features. My work are stories illustrated as much through the materials as by the visual. The work is meant to be a moment that has precedent and antecedent. Things that lead up to my work and follow from it."
Like many or most, I want, am driven to understand the tactile and the spiritual. Which means God or Gods, death and the end of experience. My work is my afterlife. All this questions pervade what I show. Which I express as the joy of painting and color, and the still living wood.
He is blue to draw accurately, but generally puts traditional accuracy aside in pursuit of unscripted form. Grace of line and good use of space are important to him. When he is asked, he describes his work as Primitive. Which reflects his admiration for early cultures and their invention of art as answers to mystery.
"Over these many years I have explored myriad ideas of what excites me about great artists artists, alive and dead; how they think and see and create. Then using what I can and am able to canvas, wood, and paper. I am guided by brevity, whimsy, and what I imagine.
I rarely make preparatory studies or maquettes. I see blank canvas or wood from a tree as having a rich history to reveal, Hence, much is discovered and plenty is discarded or covered over. Most paintings are actually several leading to the last. Which the varied surfaces, pentimenti, of my paintings suggests. My floor is covered with wood chips that were once unsatisfactory features. My work are stories illustrated as much through the materials as by the visual. The work is meant to be a moment that has precedent and antecedent. Things that lead up to my work and follow from it."
Like many or most, I want, am driven to understand the tactile and the spiritual. Which means God or Gods, death and the end of experience. My work is my afterlife. All this questions pervade what I show. Which I express as the joy of painting and color, and the still living wood.