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Ray Roberts Biography
Ray Roberts is one of California's most respected Plein Air artists. He has recently won the Gold Medal for "Best Painting" at the California Art Club and the Artists' Choice Award, the highest accolade from fellow artists, at three major Southwest art events.
He is best known for his seascapes, figurative work, and majestic views of California and the Southwest.
Artistic style and influences:
Ray's vibrant use of color, bold textures, and sensitivity to shifting patterns of light give life and movement to his paintings. They are to be experienced, not merely observed.
Inspired by such early California impressionists as Hanson Puthuff, William Wendt, and William Ritschel, Ray seeks to capture the luminous, golden light and the magnificent, vanishing landscapes of his native state. Like his other great hero, Maynard Dixon, Ray shares a reverence for the land and a marked spirituality in his work.
Ray believes in the importance of artistic legacy. "There's a brotherhood of painters who came before me and who will come after. We speak in the past, present, and future. We talk about our experience and personality, our torments and exhilarations; we talk about the beauty of the fleeting light, time and of our family, friends and acquaintances."
Biographical details:
Born in 1954, Ray grew up in an Orange County with orange groves, before the days of freeways and sprawling housing developments. It has given him an enduring affection for the untamed, undeveloped California of his youth.
One boyhood neighbor was painter Evelyn Nunn Miller, who would let Ray into her studio to retrieve the balls he'd hit over her fence. Later, after the early death of his father and mother's ill-health, Ray was sent to Orme School, a beautiful, ranch-style boarding school in the Arizona desert. Its strong fine arts program helped Ray to discover his artistic talent.
He then attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he studied under John Asaro. He has also studied under Dan McCaw, Len Chmiel, and Mark Daily, among others.
Art Center is where Ray also met his wife, impressionist painter Peggi Kroll. While dating, the two of them would go out nightclubbing, to sketch rather than dance! It has been a successful partnership ever since.
Like many successful artists before him, Ray first pursued a career as an illustrator, establishing a studio in Los Angeles and then Scottsdale, Arizona. He got up the courage to switch to fine art in 1992 and has never looked back.
Ray and Peggi now live with their three children and assorted animals on a 20 acre ranch in Angels Camp, an old California gold rush town, surrounded by the oak-studded hills which he frequently paints.
The great outdoors is Ray's studio. A bit of an adventurer, he's been known to backpack for several days into the wilderness, set up his easel on a cliff edge, or in the surf, for just the right setting.
Ray on Ray:
"Over the years I've become my own artist. I'm constantly searching and evolving. When I go out to paint, whether it's on the coast, the mountains or the desert, I look for something that speaks to me emotionally, and try to get that communication across. I hope that people can share my vision through the canvas. My paintings are my footprints."
Awards and Affiliations:
Signature Member - Plein Air Painters of America (PAPA)
Signature Member - California Art Club (CAC)
Signature Member - Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA)
Signature Member - Northwest Rendezvous
2012-Gold Medal for Painting - California Art Club 101st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition
2011-Best of Show - Laguna Plein Air Invitational, Laguna Art Museum
2011-Best of Show - Maynard Dixon Country Invitational, Mount Carmel, Utah
2007-Heritage Award, Irvine Heritage Show, San Juan Capistrano, California
2006- Best of Show Award, Capistrano Valley Conservancy Plein Air, San Juan Capistrano, California
2005- Friends of OPA Award, Oil Painters of America, Chicago, Illinois
2004- Gold Medal for "Best Painting" at the California Art Club's 94th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California
2004- Artists' Choice Award- Laguna Plein Air Invitational Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
2004- Artists' Choice Award- Maynard Dixon Country Invitational Mount Carmel, Utah
2003 Artists' Choice, Laguna Plein Air Invitational, Laguna, California
2003 Artists' Choice Award, Carmel Plein Air Festival, Carmel, California
2003 Honorable Mention, Carmel Plein Air Festival, Carmel, California
2003 Maynard Dixon Award, Sonoran Desert Invitational, Tucson, Arizona
2002 Honorable Mention, Laguna Plein Air Invitational, Laguna, California
2001 Honorable Mention, Scene on the Straight, Vallejo, California
2001 American Artist Magazine Award for Excellence, Oil Painters of America National Juried Show, Palm Desert, California
2000 Best of Show, American Impressionist Society, Cincinnati, Ohio
1999 Best Seascape, Ebell Club Annual Art Show, Los Angeles, California
1995 Best of Show, Phippen Memorial Art Show, Prescott, Arizona
1995 First Place Oil, Phippen Memorial Art Show, Prescott, Arizona
1995 Best of Show, Beaver Creek Art Festival, Beaver Creek, Colorado
1994 Best Portrait, Oil Painters of America, Chicago, Illinois
1994 Tara Fredeicks Award, Oil Painters of America, Chicago, Illinois
1998-2008 Exhibitor, Laguna Art Museum Plein Air Invitational, Laguna, California
2008-One Man Show, Michael Hollis Gallery, Pasadena, California
2008-2004 Maynard Dixon Country Invitational, Thunderbird Foundation, Mt. Carmel, Utah
2008-California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, California
2008-Plein Air Painters of America Exhibition, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland
2008-Plein Air Painters of America Exhibition, Bennington Center for the Arts, Vermont
2005 Three Person Show, William Lester Gallery, Pt Reyes, California
2005-2002 Exhibitor, Plein Air Painters of America Annual Exhibition, California
2008-2001 Exhibitor NorthWest Rendezvous Annual Exhibition, Helena, Montana
2007-Plein Air Painters of America, From the Heart Exhibition, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California
2007-Torrey Pines Plein Air Invitational, La Jolla, California
2007-Group Show, Michael Hollis Gallery, Pasadena, California
2007-Figure in the Landscape, Knowlton Gallery, Lodi, California
2007-Quartet, Master Painters of the Foothills, Knowlton Gallery, Lodi, California
2007-2003-Group Show, Santa Lucia Preserve/Medicine Man Gallery, New Mexico
2006-Santa Cruz Plein Air Invitational, Santa Cruz, California
2006-California Art Club, On Location in Malibu, Frederick Weisman Museum, Malibu, California
2006-Stockton on Canvas, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California
2006-Autumn and Winter Show, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California
2006-Best of the Best, Phippen Museum, Prescott, Arizona
2005-Three Person Show, William Lester Gallery, Pt. Reyes, California
2005-2002-Exhibitor, Plein Air Painters of America Annual Exhibition, Catalina, California
2004 California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, Pasadena, California
2003 Exhibitor Sea-to-Shining-Sea Exhibition, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California
2003 Exhibitor, Desert Landscapes Show, California Art Club
2003 Exhibitor, On Location in Malibu, Frederick Weisman Museum, California
2002 Two Person Show, Edenhurst Gallery, California
2002 Exhibitor, Museum of the Rockies Invitational Show, Colorado
2002-1 Exhibitor, American Impressionist Society Show, California
2001 Two Person Show, Third Canyon Gallery, Colorado
2001 Two Person Show, Medicine Man Gallery, New Mexico
2001 Two Person Show, Angels Camp, California
2001 Exhibitor, California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, California
2000 Exhibitor, American Impressionist Society Show, Ohio
2000 Two Person Show, Thomas Reynolds Gallery, California
1999 One Person Show, Taos Gallery, Arizona
1999 One Person Show, K Nathan Gallery, California
1998 One Person Show, Medicine Man Gallery, New Mexico