Jonathan Richter, painter and animator, debuted his work at The Arts Company in November 2005. To capture the spontaneity of the moment and the images of the people interacting, he experiments with color, form and concept. His paintings, like those of Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Glackens, are created in bustling peopled places rather than in sterile studios. Considering himself to be a public space painter, Jonathan was trained in fine art, illustration and animation at Otis Parsons in Los Angeles. Jonathan followed his painterly path to Nashville where he discovered the city’s most populous places—the sidewalks, the watering holes, the juke joints and diners—an abundant inspiration for his spontaneous portraitures.
About "1st Day in Purgatory"
Jonathan Richter and Doug McKelvey have been working for months to produce a collaborative project that consists of a series of 50+ new small paintings, each with a line or two of poetic prose attached as part of an imaginative narrative of 50 subjects in the first moments or days after their deaths. Richter contends that his portraits have no meaning whatsoever beyond being studies; but Douglas insists they do have meaning. Once his words are attached to each piece both artists contend that “between randomness and order…people find surprising connections with the portraits.”
Along with the original paintings and captions, an art book version of the entire “1st Day in Purgatory” show has been produced and is available for purchase.
About Douglas Kaine McKelvey
The remote descendent of Scottish horse-thieving ancestors, Douglas Kaine McKelvey has already bested the dubious achievements of his predecessors by penning four published books, crafting lyrics for more than 140 songs recorded by a variety of artists, and engaging in numerous other professional writing type endeavors. Douglas is currently an artist-in-residence with Orbit Media Group, and a lyricist with Simpleville Music. His favorite dance move is "The Aluminum Biscuit" and his favorite facial expression is the "cool, detached stare."
