Richard Boyd Art Gallery is pleased to present the fifth annual solo exhibition of watercolor paintings by noted artist Randy Eckard on June 1st at 10:00 a.m.

Raised in North Carolina, Randy studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and the Haywood School of Craft in Clyde, North Carolina. A trained commercial and fine artist living in Blue Hill, Maine Randy’s career as a fine artist working exclusively with watercolors spans more than three decades.

Randy is known for his use of light and shadow, with the subject of most of his paintings being light and how it defines and shapes the scene before him. His watercolor paintings capture the timeless beauty and charm of Maine’s architecture and landscape, and his ability to capture the beauty and nuances of simply utilitarian objects in watercolor is magical.

When asked about his career as an artist Randy replied, “I’m closing in on forty years of working with watercolors. For several years I was fascinated by the versatility and wonder of drawing with pencil, and pen and ink. An HB pencil, a kneaded eraser, and a sheet of bristol board, opened up a world or exploration in black and white. At the urging of a friend I tried adding watercolor to the early stages of my drawings, and I was soon painting more than drawing. My love of drawing never diminished, and continues with quite detailed drawings in preparation for painting.

Inspirations pour in from the beautiful and dramatic coastline of Downeast Maine, where I have lived for the past twenty-five years. The drawings, watercolors, and tempera paintings of Andrew Wyeth, have guided and fostered my sensibilities for most of my years as a painter. Reading about the techniques of drybrush and glazing, brought to the forefront by Wyeth, revealed a method of working with watercolor where my love of drawing could be paired with my new-found love of watercolor.

As a young boy, growing up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, I began noticing and responding to the warm glow and cool, contrasting shadows of late afternoons. Those early observations of light would become the focus of my paintings. Light reveals the character, color, and texture of objects, whether man-made or natural, and the alternation of lighted and shadowed planes produce powerful repeated patterns and are an important element of design.

Early on I realized how quiet observation would most always reveal the life of a subject, and I learned to pay attention to sparks of inspiration, often arriving unexpectedly during my solitary wanderings along the backroads of coastal Maine.”

For the two years in a row Randy was selected as one of Maine’s most noteworthy artists for The  artmaine Annual Guide. He has won over 190 awards for his paintings in watercolor throughout New England and the Southeast recently winning the Red Ribbon Award in Watercolor, Graphics, and Drawings at the Vero Beach, Florida 2021 Under the Oaks Arts Festival. His work is widely collected and included in numerous private and corporate collections

The exhibit is on view free of charge between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily through June 29, 2021. When the exhibit opens you can view images of all the paintings selected for the exhibit on the gallery’s website http://www.richardboydartgallery.com click on the Current Exhibit tab. Images of his paintings installed in the gallery will be available for viewing on the gallery’s Facebook page   http://www.facebook.com/RichardBoydArtGallery on June 2nd.

For more information about the exhibit contact the gallery by phone at (207)-712-1097, via email at info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit the gallery’s website at www.richardboydartgallery.com .