Born in 1924, Richard Mayhew brought new ideas to landscape painting.
His work introduced freedom and imagination to abstract landscape. Art no longer had to replicate an accurate picture of reality – that is what photography does best. Mayhews’ canvases depict environments where imaginations can thrive.
Mayhews’ art is infused with his cultural heritage – a person of African and Native American descent. His paternal grandmother shared experiences of her native American culture with him.
His background includes: an art education in the United States, study in Europe, tutelage from some of the Harlem Renaissance icons, and extensive travel throughout the United States to visit America’s magnificent natural landscapes. He also studied the medical drawings of Di Vinci and other masters of medical anatomy. In his early shows, critics noticed influences from European masters such as Monet.
What color is love, fear, desire?
Mayhews’ works are open to the interpretation of the viewer. Some pieces are visceral – color and bold strokes evoke the feeling and power of energy, air, and awe. Movement, balance, and proportion leave the viewer with the feeling that they are in the picture, feeling the sun, hearing the stream, seeing the mountain, or communing with God.
Mayhew adroitly mastered the concept of color, creating his unique evolution of American landscape painting. His brightly colored, sometimes abstract landscapes draw the viewer into his portraits, daring them to see patterns, forms, and the magnificence of nature.