Artist's Statement
Creating is an addiction. With all the highs and lows you would expect.
I am interested in the surface textures and creating paintings that portray them in realistic detail. Hopefully a viewer will feel they can run a hand over the feathers and moss, or grasp an object in the painting.
This detail is usually composed in an abstract design. The design can occur naturally or be arranged by me.
The subjects of my paintings are usually based on the patterns and textures of nature and human interaction with nature.
I have found subjects to paint in remote wilderness areas of the world, local parking lots, and my own backyard.
Rick Pas
Education
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Pearson Art Scholarship
Commissions and Collections
Alliance for the Great Lakes, Chicago, IL
Ameritech, Detroit, MI
Charles S. Mott Foundation, Flint, MI
General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
Potter Park Zoological Society, Lansing, MI
Selected Publications
"Competition Spotlight." The Artist's Magazine, April, 2009
"Holland show features art inspired by nature." The Grand Rapids Press, July 27, 2008
"DON'T MISS 'Natural Eye' exhibit at HAAC." The Holland Sentinel, June 12, 2008
"Softening the definition of landscapes." American Art Collector, May 2008
"Nature is in the Details." The Artist's Magazine, October, 2007
"Nature's Surfaces and Textures." Whisper in the Woods, Summer, 2007
"Arizona Best of the West-Animal Art." Southwest Art, May 2007
"Cover Competition Finalists." American Artist Watercolor, Spring, 2007
Pintores de la Naturleza, SEO/Birdlife, Madrid, 1997 (illustrator)
"A Dark, Dark Day Indeed." Audubon, March, 1988 (illustrator)
"Wildlife Artist of the Year." Michigan Out of Doors, December 1987 (article & cover illustrator)
"Music in the Men's Room." Audubon, July, 1985 (illustrator)
"Bird Art Takes Wing at Wausau." Milwaukee Journal, September 11, 1983
"Wildlife Artist of the Year." Michigan Out of Doors, December 1982 (article & cover illustrator)
Awards
American Artist Cover Competition Finalist, 2007
The Artist's Magazine Art Competition Finalist, 2006-2008
Fraser Gallery, Georgetown International Honorable Mention, 2003
Arts for the Parks Region III Award, 1992
Indiana Migratory Bird Stamp Design, 1985
Michigan United Conservation Clubs' Wildlife Artist of the Year, 1982,1987
Selected Exhibitions
2009
West Michigan Center for Arts & Technology, Grand Rapids, MI, ArtPrize
William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA, Landscape Exhibition
Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI, Michigan Fine Arts Competition
Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI, Shrines and Altars
2008
William Baczek Fine Arts, Landscape Exhibition
William Baczek Fine Arts, Summer Group Exhibition
Gallery Project, Animal Intelligence
Holland Area Arts Council, Holland, MI, The Natural Eye
Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, WI, Art and the Animal
2007
William Baczek Fine Arts, Landscape Exhibition
William Baczek Fine Arts, Summer Group Exhibition
2006
WARD Gallery, Harbor Springs, MI, New Dimensions in the Natural World
Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT, Art and the Animal
Gallery Project, Nature Reperceived
2005
Light Street Gallery, Baltimore, MD, Animal House
Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, VT, Art of the Animal Kingdom
The Wildlife Experience, Parker, CO, AMERICAN BIRDS: A Flight Through Time
WARD Gallery, Summer Celebration
2004
Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC, Contemporary Realism
Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, NJ, Art and the Animal
Washington Street Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI, Fifth Year Celebration
2003
Fraser Gallery, Georgetown International
2001
Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA, 57th Juried Exhibition
Wild Wings, Lake City, MN, Fall Festival
2000
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art (Also 1983-85, 1987, 1992, 1994)
(Exhibition national tour locations included:
Sordoni Art Gallery, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Ella Carothers Dunnegan Gallery of Art, Bolivar, MO
John L. Wehle Gallery of Wildlife and Sporting Art, Mumford, NY
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Rochester Museum, Rochester, NY
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL
Springfield Museum, Springfield, MA
San Bernadino County Museum, Redlands, CA
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA
University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AK
Anchorage Fine Arts Museum, Anchorage, AK
Explorers Hall, National Geographic Society, Washington, DC)
Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, Midwest Winter
Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, NY, National 2000
1993
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wildlife: the Artist's View (Also 1990)
(Exhibition national tour locations included:
New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque, NM
R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA
Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
Rochester Museum, Rochester, NY
Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI
R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA
The High Desert Museum, Bend, OR)
1992
National Park Academy of the Arts, Jackson Hole, WY, Arts for the Parks (Also 1990)
1989
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL, Birds in Art
1979
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI, Flint Area Exhibition