Bruce Ricker
View from Cypress Hill
2004

About the Item

View From Cypress Hill is a serigraph on gesso board measuring 20 x 36," signed 'Ricker' lower right and annotated lower left. From the edition of 225, numbered 185/195 (there were also 25 AP and 5 HC). Framed in a contemporary black moulding. Bruce Ricker invites us to a place of serenity and natural beauty in View From Cypress Hill, manifesting the wish that we all have to find a place to get away from it all, to experience tranquility and let go of everyday stresses. His signature craggy rocks and windswept terrain are complemented here by the luxurious blue waters and contrasting alabaster sands. The architectural structure of this image draws in the eye, from the rugged nature of the higher elevations, to the center of the image and the seductive spirit of the sea. The Ricker style of painting is rooted in observation - "First one must see the bones of a landscape, the three-dimensional molecular nature of rock in all its power and insistence - this is the foundation of any landscape." With this foundation, Ricker introduces the effects of sunlight, wind, and water, while sensual patterns and textures emerge, revealing the form of the biological life that covers our planet. Martin Lawrence Galleries is an affiliate of Chalk & Vermilion Fine Arts, the original publisher of this print. This print is as new, with no prior ownership.

Creator:

Bruce Ricker (1945, American)

Creation Year:

2004

Dimensions:

Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Width: 44.5 in (113.03 cm)

Medium:

Screen,Gesso

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Greenwich, CT

Reference Number:

Seller: 3881stDibs: LU2664213651032

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Bruce Ricker redefines landscape art. Using an epic visionary approach, he combines an educated understanding with a lucid imagination. The results are delightful, unexpected, satisfying, and unique. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1945, he grew up in Carmel Valley, California in the 1950s, with almost no exposure to television or city life, instead, he spent his leisure time roaming the hills and redwood canyons of rural California. In the early 1960s, he joined the Navy and became a hospital corpsman in Vietnam at the age of 17. When he returned from his service, he studied art at San Francisco State University, however, he left after two years, dissatisfied with a program that seemed to be only an indoctrination in the “proper” ideas about art. Ricker later enrolled in the U.C. Berkeley School of Architecture. Although he benefited from this discipline, he thought he had “too many curves” in him to stick to the straight path of architecture as a career. In the mid-1970s, he began painting seriously and selling his artwork to an increasingly wide audience. “I’m trying,” says Bruce Ricker, “to do the same thing George Lucas does in his movies.” That would be to create a new universe, or at least a new way of seeing what is already here. In doing so, the artist, film director, writer and actor must chart new territory which, when you think about it, is what creative life is all about. “Someone like Lucas,” continues Ricker, “must ask himself, ‘How can I present a city unlike any ever seen before?’ I ask myself this same question before I paint. I am very aware of the standard way of looking at things – the cliché – any my work is all about not falling into that trap.” Over his thirty years as a professional artist, and even longer as a lover of the land, Bruce Ricker’s motifs have become notable for their sharp detail and articulate precision. He prefers to find uncharted territory that’s rich and beautiful… and unexpected, to “give people a view they haven’t seen before. In dreams and in life, nothing is impossible.” (Victor Forbes, Fine Art, 2002)