Rich Nelson - Biography
Rich Nelson is an award-winning portrait and gallery artist residing in the mountains of North Carolina. 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, places, and things and considers it a privilege and a challenge to capture some aspect of their essence on canvas. All of this work (except some portraiture) is done exclusively from life.
"I work toward 'painterly realism'; good drawing and composition, 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 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 300 commissioned oil portraits.
Nelson strives to do museum quality work that will be around long after he and his subjects have left this world. He has won a number of honors in the last few years, including 2nd Place in the Portrait Society Of America's 2008 Members-Only 'Outdoor' Portrait Competition, Finalist in the 2007 Portrait Society Of America's Members-Only 'Children's' Portrait Competition, Semifinalist in American Artist Magazine's 70th Anniversary Competition in 2007, and Second Place and People's Choice in the Portrait Society's Tri-State Competition in 2006. He has also won a number of Certificates of Merit, Honorable Mentions, and Best Portfolio awards from the Portrait Society Of America over the last decade. His portrait, figurative, landscape and still life pieces aim to provide meaning and enjoyment now, and are sure to continue to do so for future generations.
