Welcome to the savvy painter podcast, the podcast for artists who mean business. Here's your

host, Antrice Wood.

Hello, it's Antrice and welcome to another episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast.

It feels so good to be back on a roll with these interviews.

Right now at this moment I am still in California working out of my mom's garage in

Claremont while my husband and I bounce around visit friends act like tourists

and still manage to get some painting done.

We have a growing collection of house keys from extraordinarily generous friends.

For the past week we have been planning our next adventure and as I get closer to finalizing the

details I will let you know what's going on but I'm pretty excited about what's

coming up in the next couple of months But for now I am delighted to have Rick Stevens as my guest.

Rick straddles the line between abstraction and representational painting. As he will tell you, that is exactly where he wants to be,

in the gray area slipping in and out of both labels.

Rick's work is inspired by nature.

His paintings take you to that quiet place in the woods, where leaves shimmer

against the sky, colors blend into and out of each other. Water drips down into a stream and

the wind brings fresh air and the scent of the earth.

His influences include Odolan Redon, Pierre Bernard, Eduard, George Innes, and Gustav Klimt.

Rick and I talk about how a year of solitude focused his work.

We also talk about accepting the generosity of patrons,

how Tai Chi has informed his perception of painting,

and we even get into a discussion on impulse

...