Although artist, Richard Burton, tends toward realism, realism is not his goal, as you can see in the segment of The Old Woodie (at the left). It is easy for you the viewer to see that it is a painting of two old gas pumps from time nostalgic. They seem realistic enough, but they are definitely not photogenically real nor were they intended to be. Mr. Burton is more interested in line, color, design, direction and manipulation of the eye. This is his passion, but he appreciates every style, technique, art-ism, genre, that is or ever has been floating out there since the scribblings of men (we assume it was men…could have been women) on cave walls.
“I enjoy everything that is really good, and I feel confident that I can tell what is really good. However, I can appreciate the endeavor, strife, and creativity of any art whether it is good or not,” he often has said. “When you really think about it almost ninety-five percent of all paintings and pictures that hang on peoples walls is not good art (for art’s sake).”
“If an artist’s work looks realistic enough, many claim it looks like a photograph, which is not a compliment. If it is paint drops dribbled or splattered on canvas, you hear things like: ‘What in the world?’ If it is brilliant magnificent shapes of opposite colors side by side representing nothing but chilling thrilling passion, many say: ‘Ho – hum…so what?'”
The scale of so what goes from the left to the right, round and round, and back again. <REALISTIC TRADITIONAL EXPRESSIONISTIC SURREAL ABSTRACT>and “I feel,” says Mr. Burton, “experimenting with each is a good lesson for all artist. It helps them get their feet solidly planted on their ‘art planet’. Not to worry, they’ll find themselves.”
Once Mr. Burton mentioned that his great passion would be to paint a realistic painting of something that was very recognizable but at the same time it would be so abstract that it would literally blow the minds of any of the viewers that ever saw it. As a matter of fact, he stated he wanted it to be similar (in the abstract) as his favorite abstract painting, Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition Vll.
When asked if he was working on such a painting, Mr. Burton replied: “Not yet, but still on my bucket list.” Then he said in retrospect, “Probably kick that bucket down the road a ways…may be impossible.”
Well, we wish him best in his creative endeavors. We know he will continue to create, paint, write, and produce just as his artist brother, Lynn Burton, does.
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