 Artist Bruce Riley Working on my cellular paintings has led me to find some amazing artists, so I have decided to start a reoccuring series of blog posts featuring different artists that have been particularly inspiring. My hope in doing this is to not only expose my readers to some new artworks and creators, but to also eventually begin a dialouge with other markers and to foster a community. The first artist I would like to spotlight is Bruce Riley. A process-driven artist, Riley starts his works without a preliminary sketch, allowing the piece to determine the outcome based on the materials before him. His canvases are filled with layer after layer of poured paint and resin, creating breathtaking landscapes of nonrepresentational organic forms. Each piece can have as few as 10 distinct layers, and can be considered sculptural in it's weight and composition. "Being in the eternity of the moment is the experience that most influences my life, art and ideas. The past and the future look to be human constructs. Everything is whole and present in the moment.(1)"Among his' influences, Riley credits Eric Nuemann, Carl Jung, Esther Harding, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, and Krishnamurti (3). He often speaks of his' work being about Everything, all at once. "At the age of nineteen or twenty I had become aware of how fundamental the moment was to my existence. This awareness of the moment, not as an abstraction but in a more direct manner, is what I've been working on ever since. (3)" “My approach is a bit ‘hands off’ compared to more traditional ways of applying paint. So I’ve gotten used to accidents. I’ll leave really ugly passages to dry that with a light glaze later become the most glowing part of a painting.(4)”In the 80's, he began his spontaneous paintings and started finding more success; his style lost its figurative undertones and became more abstract. With his growing success, he was able to quit his day job working in galleries and could devote his full attention to his paintings. (3) "My life is structured around spending time in the studio.(3)"Check out my board on pintrest for more of Riley's work!Sources:
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