Rich Nelson is a nationally recognized award-winning portrait and gallery artist residing in the mountains of NC. Though portraiture is a major part of his career, he also loves painting landscape, still life, and figurative gallery pieces. He is endlessly fascinated by people and considers it a privilege and a challenge to capture some aspect of their essence on canvas. All of this work is done exclusively from life; landscape, still life and figurative. "I work toward 'painterly realism'; good drawing and compostion, rendered with strong natural color, in such a way that you can still 'sense' or 'feel' the paint. The effect of this process is that the subject begins to artfully reveal itself to me and hopefully, the viewer".
Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Rich earned his BFA from the prestigious College Of Creative Studies in 1988. It was at CCS that he developed his love of painting, drawing, figurative art, and art history. Rich has been working as an artist ever since, initially as an illustrator, then as a portrait artist, gallery artist, and instructor. He has won many awards and completed over 150 commissioned portraits.
Rich strives to do museum quality work that will be around long after he and his subjects have left this world. His portraits, landscapes and still life pieces provide meaning and enjoyment now are sure to continue to do so for future generations.
