Grand Bohemian Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition titled Color Stories which showcases pastels and acrylics by Atlanta artist R. John Ichter. The exhibition is open through August 31st.
R. John Ichter is best known for his brilliantly colored, stylized landscapes. He uses a variety of media, such as pastel on suede and acrylics on canvas, reverse acrylics on Plexiglas, acrylic and resin 3-d koi, watercolors, and abstract oil and acrylics on canvas. His color-saturated landscapes and dragonflies convey his passion for the beauty of nature and his intense abstract works show his depth of imagination and spontaneity. Highly decorative, his fantastical forests are filled with color, but contain a linearity that echo the masters of the Arts & Crafts movement.
“First and foremost, it’s color that inspires me,” says Ichter. “The visceral reaction that I get from the intense color combinations I use, motivates me more than anything.”
Historical ink paintings from China and Japan influenced the artist early in his career and led him to study watercolor. Andrew Wyeth was a big influence, as were Van Gogh and Klimt. Ichter’s acrylic and resin fish were inspired by the Japanese master of the technique, Riusuke Fukahori.
Ichter’s first trip to Asheville was some 30 years ago and he has been visiting on a regular basis, inspired by the rich temperate rain forest woodlands that often figure into his work.
“My landscapes don’t really try to mimic nature, but rather they use the scenes I create as jumping off points for studies in color,” he says. “That is also a reason that I don’t limit myself to one style or one medium. The skills I learned as a watercolorist has translated in to all the different things I do know and each style and medium is influenced by all the others, in an over 40 year career”
R. John Ichter owned and ran a gallery and frame shop for over a decade, giving that up in the early 2000s to paint exclusively. His works have been commissioned by a number of corporate and private collectors, with works in the collections of Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Deloitte and Touche, Hyatt Hotels, Accenture, and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. He lives in the creative Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. He also has a black belt in Cuong Nhu karate.
For more information, contact gallery director Constance Richards at 828-398-5555 or [email protected].