Richard Gombar

I am an American painter of my environment. Where once art needed nature to survive, we now need art to help nature survive. While not politically motivated, in a sense-- because I paint nature, my work is a political statement. I paint to capture beauty, to hold forever a passing moment, to memorialize that which may be fleeting, or in the case of barns and industrial sites, falling. If my paintings, pastels and drawings help more people become aware of what may be potentially lost, can invoke a sense of wonder as in childhood, and can be emotionally moving and provoking, then a statement with a profound impact may be the result. It is a search for the truth without sentimentality. My work is of nature, but just as important, it is about painting, color, structure. The images are about Romanticism, transcendentalism and pure emotion. I try to make the immense intimate.