DPW Spotlight Interview: Michael Ryczek

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

To enter to win Michael Ryczek's painting, "Red Rooibos and Tiger Lily #70," go to DailyPaintworks and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Michael Ryczek's DPW gallery page:

I'm a painter and graphic designer working out of Boston, MA. I graduated Montserrat College of Art in 2006 w/ a BFA in Illustration and Boston University in 2010 w/ a certification in Web Design.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

Well I wish I could tell that you that I've been holding a paintbrush ever since I was 2 years old, but I can't. While I remember drawing with pencil from a young age, my first introduction to painting was in high school art class. I started off mostly with watercolors (I'm pretty sure we didn't have oil paint at our disposal in high school) and remember having a ton of fun experimenting with different watercolor drip techniques. Toward the end I moved into acrylic, but didn't enjoy the flat appearance or the tackiness when it dried. I also felt like I had to race to get out my idea because of the quick dry time.

Red Rooibos and Tiger Lily #70

(click here to see original image)

Enter to win by clicking the "Artist Spotlight and Giveaway" button!

Right before I was to apply for art school, I came across the painters Greg and Tim Hildebrandt and their N.C. Wyeth-inspired illustrative oil paintings. They were brilliant at capturing reflected light and using limited palettes in their work and I think they were the first artists who really got me excited about being a painter.

My first experience with oils was during my freshman year at Montserrat College of Art in 2002, which I consider my first significant introduction to painting. We had to do a quick study of a still life in the classroom and I remember being fascinated by the depth of color and possibilities that this new medium offered me. The slow drying time allowed me to take the time to immerse myself in the painting process, and, unlike watercolors or acrylics, each mark was not final and could be altered at any time. I also always loved the way a turpentine wash looked on a canvas.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

After getting my BFA in Illustration from in 2006, I moved to Boston with a desire to start a career in Illustration. I was relatively aimless in my search for work and I just knew I wanted to do some kind of editorial work where I could employ my style at the time, which was a mix of realist oil painting and found material / pencil drawing collage.

I made a website, had postcards and business cards made up and the summer after graduation I spent my first month in Boston sending out tons of promotional material to every art publication I could find, to no avail. I could sense at that point that my interest in Illustration was waning and didn't want to have to bend my paintings to fit the theme of a magazine article.

Broadmoor Wetlands, Natick, MA
(click here to see original image)

During the next 2-3 years, my life-long problems with alcohol abuse pretty much forced me onto an indefinite hiatus from any art. I had struggled with alcohol throughout my high school and college years, but this period directly after was debilitating and put painting at the low end of my priorities. I was concentrating more on trying to hold a day job than make money selling art and at its worst, I ended up in the emergency room multiple times for panic attacks resulting from drinking.

Toward the end of that three year period, I decided I was going to go back to school for graphic and web design in an effort to find a career that involved creativity and an artistic eye, but was far enough away from painting that I didn't have to rely on my art to make a living. During the year and a half at B.U., I concentrated on design and painting remained in the background as something that I wanted to eventually get back to, after I pieced my life together.

I ended up meeting a wonderful girl there who I started dating as soon as we graduated. She strongly encouraged me to get back to my painting and played a pivotal role in me sobering up. I am someone who needs a lot of momentum and positive reinforcement to continue making art (as much as I would like to say I'm a self-starter) and I have to say she was a driving force in me starting this daily painting exercise and working on my conceptual paintings. When I look back, I can see that my addiction was directly related to my lack of painting and I can date back my first "new" still life to around when I stopped drinking.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I did most of my medium experimentation in college, but some of it carried over into the year after graduation. Throughout school, different classes require you do work in different mediums so I've pretty much tried most of them including: charcoal, oil, acrylic, watercolor, tar, wax encaustic, pen and ink, pastel, etc. Around senior year and the year after graduation, I got really into photo transfers using acrylic gloss medium but could never master it and was always unsure if I wanted to use photo transfer in my art anyway.

Oil was the one I always kept going back to and is the medium I consistently use today, with bits of pencil drawing here and there.

Izzy and Beams - No. 62
(click here to see original image)

The one downside of using oil is the incredible mess it makes, but it's something I've tried to adapt to as best I can. I've recently started using Liquin as a medium, as well as Alkyd paints to speed up the dry time a little (to like 2 days instead of a week for Titanium White, which is amazing). I'm not sure what other mediums I might explore in the future but I feel like I still have a ton of exploration to do with oils and the possibilities they offer.

In terms of genres, I worked on mostly conceptual work in school, creating strange fractured looking environments with usually human figures with their faces altered in some way. I continue to work on my conceptual work alongside my daily paintings, and although the subject matter is clearly different, I usually have bits of realism in both and go about all of my paintings with a minimalistic approach.

Many of your paintings capture what would be a still, pensive moment, if the viewer were in that environment. What are your thoughts on the kind of experience you're trying to create for your audience?

I think that when I first started my painting a day blog, my pieces were still carrying over a very geometric and flat quality from my older painting that I really hated, because it wasn't creating any kind of experience for me.

The top of a table on which the object was placed was perfectly ruled out and the paint was taped off to create a clean line. I kept doing this because it felt safe and I love harsh lines and strong contrast, but I was going about it in a way that in the end looked flat to me. The stillness that you mention was brought to an extreme where it just felt lifeless and everything was so careful and measured out that painting started to feel like work.

As I've continued along, I've tried to preserve the quietude that I originally loved in paintings, but began using erratic brushstrokes and started throwing paint around a little more to try to add an ethereal quality to everything and give the viewer the essence of the subject, pared down to its simplest form, instead of replicating every single detail.

Delftware Creamer and Sugar - No. 59
(click here to see original image)

Lately, I have tried experimenting with blurring brushstrokes to create a sense of movement in the piece, even if the subject matter is still. I find that in forcing myself to loosen up every time I have an instinct to start obsessing over some small area, the more the painting actually becomes an entity in and of itself that I can enter into a dialogue with, each stroke determining what I do next.

Two years ago, getting some green from a leaf into the white of a flower might have been a mistake, and now it is what makes the painting worth painting to me. I also make a conscious effort to leave areas of the neutral ground underneath the painting showing through and to not cover every square inch of the panel with paint. To me, beside the fact that I just like how it looks, this reminds the viewer that they're looking at an illusion which, if I can make the realism in the painting convincing enough, creates a strange limbo state between reality and fantasy.

I have always been astonished at paint itself; at how globs of pigment can be transformed into a beautiful reflection or extension of reality, and in a way leaving unfinished areas of the painting is a testament to that.  

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I am a horrible procrastinator and I have to be vigilant about getting myself working. A few days ago, I decided to move all of my painting supplies down to our basement in an effort to flee the blistering heat we've been experiencing, but when it's not summer I have a small office where I have my easel right next to the newer of my two computers which I use for graphic design projects and everyday things. So when I'm in need of inspiration, I can very easily lapse into looking up other artists online that might inspire me on said computer and, in the process, get distracted from the task at hand.

Pink Roses - No. 48
(click here to see original image)

The surest way I have found to get work done is to get up as early as possible, get dressed in the paint splattered clothes that I paint in (so I don't feel comfortable lounging around and risking getting oil paint on the couch) and bypassing the computer. The basement is so far proving to be a much better place for solitude and a distraction-free environment than my office/studio, so I'm thinking of just staying there until I'm freezing.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I try to carry a camera around with me as much as possible (or borrow my girlfriend's iPhone) and really just try to capture scenes on the spot that catch my eye due to the color, lighting, etc.

Occasionally I will have an idea of what I am looking for and will seek a specific image out, but most of the time it's random inspiration that I think would make for an interesting painting. Many pieces I've done have come from impromptu iPhone snapshots of things on tables at restaurants, usually getting me strange looks from the waiter/waitress.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Seeing as how I tend to stick to oil and pencil as my mediums, my subject matter, technique and composition are the three main things I try to play with. I am always trying to think of new unconventional subjects for still lifes and draw a ton of inspiration from another daily painter, Duane Keiser, who in my opinion is a master at taking the mundane and overlooked and making it beautiful.

I also try never to stick too rigidly to any of my own or anyone else's rules about how to paint something, as there really aren't any (although many a teacher has tried to fool naive, young art students into thinking that their personal preference is a universal truth). Continuing to humble myself and realize how much I have to learn by looking at other artists is also a great way to stay hungry for the next better piece.

Broadmoor Hill, Natick, MA
(click here to see original image)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

Although it may sound cliche, the biggest lesson I'm learning right now is how important stopping and appreciating the world around me is. Art is currently serving me as a way to freeze beautiful, yet seemingly trivial moments in time that might ordinarily be forgotten soon after experiencing them, and sitting with them long enough to appreciate all the things I might not have seen in a fleeting glance.

What makes you happiest about your art?

I have extremely high standards for myself, so I'm rarely pleased with my work, but during the rare moments that I actually see on the panel what I saw in my head, I feel a certain completeness and pride in doing that original idea justice. To know I've pushed through my own self doubt and saw a painting through to its end is the happiest moment for me.

Thanks, Michael!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine