Skotia Gallery Blog: NEW WORK: Rocky Rische-Baird

Rocky Rische-Baird, Dragonfly, 17 x 15/10 inches, oil on canvas

We have just received new work in from Rocky Rische-Baird! If you don't know about Rocky, read on...

Rocky Rische-Baird is an artist born and raised in Northern California who divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and a studio in the village of Putney, Vermont. Rische-Baird’s work, beautiful and peaceful, timeless and reflective, and stunning in both vision and rendering, reflects his deep love and affinity for nature, as well as his interest in questions regarding consciousness, the self, and the unity between the human mind, wonder, and nature.

Fascinated and enamored with drawing, painting, and the natural world from the earliest of ages, Rische-Baird spent his every waking free hour honing his craft and exploring and observing nature, which led to a series of apprenticeships starting at a very young age with various artists and craftsmen, and eventual employment as an assistant art director in his teens at a printing and design studio. Later, Rische-Baird moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he has shown his work in Bay Area galleries, been voted “Best of the Bay” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, accepted commissions to be part of permanent city collections, and has frequently been featured in numerous publications, such as the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Magazine, as well as featured on ABC News and KCBS radio. Through all of this, Rische-Baird has continued to create technically masterful works of a unique vision all his own, inspired by expressions throughout the ages that reflect concepts of continuity within nature and/or the self and how they relate to our contemporary perceptions of the world and our role in it; works that strive to portray an eternal essence of nature through timeless and magical pieces that place the value onto the wonder of being.

In Rocky's words:

"My work explores the unity between the human mind, Nature, and wonder.

I do not use models or photographic reference in my work and create directly from imagination. The portraits are of no one and the scenes are of no particular place or thing. They are not records of people or things in a phenomenal world but emerge from a world within and prompt questions regarding consciousness and the self.

Analogously, my work shares strong philosophical similarities with the Chinese landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty, particularly those of the Northern Song artists. As in my work, the Song paintings did not record specific sites, but strove to portray an eternal essence of nature, whereas the painting became an expression of the desire to commune with nature. Though my work shares this motive in regard to landscape, I also apply the method to my figures, thus portraying a likeness of human essence that is too, an attribute of nature.

I draw inspiration from expressions throughout the ages that reflect concepts of continuity within nature and/or the self and how they relate to our contemporary perceptions of the world and our role in it. I am interested in the idea that what is sought may only be that which has been forgotten. My work has been greatly influenced by the Platonic dialogue, Phaedrus; whereas Plato pictures the human soul in some previous state of being, as having been able to comprehend the spiritual forms with perfect clarity, a vision in which the incarnate soul retains a shadowy memory.

A core concern in my work is that of timelessness. I want to create work that is compelling and could resonate in all three spectrums of time. The exclusion of any representation of dress frees the work from values placed upon temporal material modes. Similarly, the figures rest in a space devoid of worldly influence and human concerns, placing the value onto the wonder of being." Click for an interview with Rocky

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