Kent Rucker's Art

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 In December of 2006,during Christmas break, I began a flurry of paintings. Most of the paintings were based on images from the Sistine Chapel. For those of you that paint, you know what a thrill it is have something materialize from the blank canvas. From that space where everything is possible. In addition I abdonned the white canvas for canvas made of black cotton duck. Previously I had painted on red cotton duck that I purchased at a fabric store. Much cheaper. Painting on a color was very exciting. There were many places where I just left  the  canvas blank. The raw canvas color worked as the tongue in an open mouth or redness in the eyes,   etc.. I now paint almost exclusively on black canvas.  Before I discovered that there was black gesso, the unprimed canvas sucked the life right out of my  acrylic paint. Until I could build up layers I had to suffer through the process. The first three painting to the left were done on ungessoed canvas. There are many colors of cotton duck. Blue brown yellow green. Give it a try some time.

This past December my girlfriend, her son and I went to Rome. I was on a mission for my father, who had died some years back.

We flew from Paris to Rome, round trip on Ryan Air for $30.00 U.S Dollars. I booked a tour of the Vatican, which included the Sistine Chapel. Of course it was as remarkable as it was crowded. Wall to wall visitors. So thick was the throng, that the floor was invisible. The guards moved through the crowd like a canoe through  a pond of lilly pads. It struck me that some people, artists included, have gone to their graves without ever knowing that Michel-Ange never initially  painted these dark brooding figure, dark and brooding. Rather the controversial cleaning has revealed how bright, colorful and daring  his soul was. Thanks to the tour guide who directed our attention to a corner of the Chapel that was left uncleaned, I became enlightened. The patch was about two feet square, and absolutely dingy compared to the florescent colors of the rest of the ceiling.

I felt more than a note of gratitude to the curators who left that section unrestored for comparison.

The  second painting in this column is the Prophet Zacherias. Of course I took some liberties and turned a mistake into a pencil behind his ear.

The following painting was taken from a photograph of a beach  in the south of France. I dropped the horizon line, which made the female figure  fly through the air.

I continue to work on my series of self portraits. This one is titled 'Gravity Well'  named after  a well in Nice France that receives it's water from many miles to the north east. It's odd because I had a dream about that place. Children were singing  the most beautiful melody that I have ever heard, the echo of which floated above a nearby amphitheatre.

The next painting was inspired  by Michelangelo's painting of 'La Sibylle d'Erythree. Not such a good drawing but I love the colors in her skin. The background

color is my attempt at paying homage to Michelangelowho preceeded 

impressionist doctrine with his use of complimentary colored shadows and pop artist and california artists with his use of  day-glo palette. That is  400 years before their famous use of same.

The next painting is based on one of Botticcelli's Modonna and child masterpieces. We  visited the Ufizzi in Florence in the summer of 2006. I remember driving  through the city by the seat of my pants.  Jumping out of the car, and running down the narrow brown-beige streets, barely ahead of the two teen age boys who were traveling with us. The sun was at our backs as if pushing us to be on time for our appointment at the museum. Once inside we were struck speechless by an entire room full of Botticcelli's. I honestly felt like I should have crumbled to my knees in reverance.

I could not believe how utterly beautiful these paintings were. Even now, at the time of this writting, the memory compels me to work around a lump in my throat.

I hope that one day, If I'm lucky, that I can paint half as well as him. I can't image what he threw on the fire. Pieces of his soul must have floated away like air born ashes. I titled this painting "YOU" as if this might be what The Virgin said to her son. The magic child from the seed of God.

Within the context of the story, how many different ways can she say "YOU" YOU?

YOU! etc.

"Les Trois Femmes et Le Chat"

This is a painting of three women who have played an interesting role in my life. One of them before she died, called me a Great Man. One is made of beach sand and spume. The last woman is one of the smartest people I've ever met. But she has a real thing for cats. I don't know why they put up with the abuse.

Another Botticcelli. A portrait from a much larger painting called 'Culumny of Appelles.' The woman to the left is a personification of the word ignorance, who whispers into the king ear

Above Nice across from the marina, is 'Le Parc de Chateau. A beautiful serene place to visit with a great view of the coast and Old Nice. A jewish cemetary lives there.

The next painting of my girlfriend has a portion of the cemetary in the background.

I love how the glasses sit crooked on her face. For me to paint architecture, I have to slow down, get out my ruler and resign myself to measure. Many unsatisfying paintings  have reasured me that this is the best approach.

All the black areas in the painting are raw canvas. I like this technique of painting because it provides contrast which makes the work bright with drama. In addition, I don't use as much paint.

This  is another self portraits. 'Gravity Well' (above) is also one. The portraits I did when I was twenty are much different than the ones I'm doing now in my sixties. There is more truth behind them.

I also put in a detail of the painting, to show you how much fun I had moving that paint around.

LIFE LINE 2002' is a large painting done on red canvas. Its a painting of me and my canoe. Each summer I heave my canoe on top of my car and disappear for two weeks.

I would find ponds and lakes(Lake Powell was the biggest and the most dangerous for me) and I would set up my gear and paint from my canoe. I had two anchors. One attached to each end. I would drop both so that my point didn't pivot around just one anchor. I almost capsized a couple of times until I started using kyak paddles. The wind could get pretty pushy at times. With one paddle I couldn't keep the bow headed into the waves.

This the first painting of the series of black canvas paintings. Its Adam from The Sistine Chapel

I love this next painting. People always smile when they see it.

I love combining different images from art history into one new image. There are about five or six in 'CrissCrossWordPuzzle' 

Originally it was called Cross Fire.

This painting was to be an illustration for a childrens book.

This next series of four paintings were done about ten years ago. So don't be fooled by the yellow date. That date is supplied by the camera which as of yet I do not know how to remove.

I wanted to do some self portrait oil paintings without any preliminary drawings. I also wanted the subject matter to come from memories of my childhood.

I chose a character to represent my self. It was a naked black youth, with shoulders like an achor, and hair that looked like a hat that was flat on top.

'UNCLE BILL'

My father and and his friend whom I called Uncle Bill, were using a blow touch to scrape the vanish off of a wooden floor in one of our bedrooms. The floor caught on fire trapping Uncle Bill between the fire and the window. Uncle Bill jumped out the window. I don't remember why I didn't show his feet as the last thing I saw going over the edge. The firemen came into the house, but  despite the fact  that by that time the fire was out, the fireman still took his axe and started chopping the door. It was the first time I'd ever seen a fireman up close. Even so I never saw his face.,just his yellow and black slicker.

 The next painting 'REPENT' looks like I'm about to jump off of the roof of a house. Not so. One Sunday morning I got the foolish notion in my head to crawl on top of the house and yell out at the top of my lungs...REPENT ALL YOU SINNERS. Kids do the strangest things.

The second to the last time I wet the bed was when I was '18' It wasn't even my own bed. Humilating experience #172

This last painting 'I' finally turn around and face the audience. However I'm wearing a mask, and a table cloth cape. I used to run a lot before I hurt my back. Sometimes I ran with other people. One morning I thought it would be fun to run with a cape like a super hero. I didn't have a cape so I used a checkerboard table cloth. I knocked on my friends door. That day he never came down. I can't imagine why. I ran anyhow through the streets of Lafayette Colorado. I'm surprised I didn't get arrested. I ran with a cape one more time through the fields of corn in Iowa. Now you may think this is silly. It is. It  is also harmless fun. Try it some time.