Richard Garrison grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and after high-school attended North Carolina State University. Before graduating, Garrison left the university to work as a carpenter building houses, eventually in the late 1970’s starting his own home-remodeling business in Raleigh. Dissatisfied with construction as a career, he decided to go back to school and pursue a degree in visual art, his first love. After attending classes at the NCSU School of Design for a year and a half, Garrison transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where in 1985 he received his BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in painting. He next attended graduate school in art education at UNC-Greensboro in order to obtain his K-12 teacher’s certificate in art, whereupon he began a six-year tenure as a high-school art teacher in Wake County. In 1995 Garrison became a full-time professional artist.

For most of his career thus far, Garrison’s work in acrylic, oil, and various mixed-media materials, has focused on the inherent expressiveness of the human figure, as well as still-life, rendered in strong color and contrasts of light and dark, and fairly loose brushwork, often by combining realistic detail with total abstraction. His work has earned him numerous awards, one grant, and can be found in many corporate and private collections. Garrison currently lives in Raleigh with his wife Van.

MYSTERIES AND THE COMMONPLACE series

“These figures are meant as universal symbols of humanity in touch with a sense of spirit within all, and that connects individuals with one another, as well as to the universe as a whole. An awareness of this deeper experience of life can be felt in spite of the imperfection, rigidity, and uncertainty that may be part of our daily lives. The collage elements are comprised of bits and pieces of notes, mail, newsprint and other symbols of daily life, which are part of the area surrounding the usually introspective figure, illuminated by light symbolic of the metaphysical, or the Creator. The ambiguous location of the figure helps to emphasize the experience of an inner life.”

LAND WATER SKY series

“I have always loved the coast of North Carolina because of the open space, the strong, calming horizontals, the light, the color, the constant shifting of sand and water in conjunction with an eternal feeling, and the all encompassing presence of nature. I wanted to capture all of that in these paintings, while taking a break from painting the figure. I was also very consciously trying to maintain a balance between the literal and the abstract.”