Texas artist Ralph Parker grew up on the flat land surrounding Houston. His earliest memories are of wide open spaces, punctuated by a few widespread houses, and the occasional grove of trees. It was a simpler time of barefoot summers and camping trips to open Gulf Coast beaches and the Texas Hill Country. Now, decades later, those early memories seem to influence his current work.
He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston, and worked for many years as a draftsman in the oil industry, a [
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Texas artist Ralph Parker grew up on the flat land surrounding Houston. His earliest memories are of wide open spaces, punctuated by a few widespread houses, and the occasional grove of trees. It was a simpler time of barefoot summers and camping trips to open Gulf Coast beaches and the Texas Hill Country. Now, decades later, those early memories seem to influence his current work.
He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston, and worked for many years as a draftsman in the oil industry, a freelance architectural illustrator for developers and graphic design firms, and produced illustrations and marketing materials in the automotive armor industry. His fine art was a natural extension of his work experience, consisting of detailed, tightly rendered drawings in graphite and colored pencil, and pen and ink. In recent times, he has turned to brushes and paint, portraying the landscape in gouache, an opaque watercolor medium, producing work that has the look of small oil paintings.
The use of gouache is centuries old. From the Italian "guazzo", meaning “water paint”, its use appears to go back as far as the 12th century. It appears to have been used primarily as an outdoor sketching medium for early European painters, and was used extensively during the golden age of illustration because of its fast-drying characteristics. Very few artists have used it as their primary painting medium. Ralph Parker has become one of the few.
He chooses the landscape as his subject, inviting the viewer to join him as he seeks out those simple, overlooked scenes that evoke a feeling of comfortable familiarity: a quiet path, a country road, a lone tree in an open field that beckons one to come closer and sit in its shade. He peeks through trees at sunlit fields beyond, wonders what waits to be discovered inside a distant abandoned barn, delights in the cool reflective water of a small creek.
He does not consider himself a watercolorist, but simply a painter, exploring the peculiarities and unique characteristics of a special medium. Working primarily on masonite prepped with gesso, he continues to pursue a more painterly approach, pushing for bolder brushwork, softer edges, and richer color. He varnishes his finished paintings, enhancing the brilliant color, eliminating the need for mat or glass, and allowing the work to be framed like an oil painting.
Now in his sixties, Ralph Parker has embarked on a new artistic journey, pursuing new challenges in a very old medium. It is proving to be a fascinating adventure – and it has only just begun.
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