User:Mieuxmieux1/sandbox/Rick Howell

Rick Howell (born in 1957 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) was an American landscape painter specializing in plein air works.

After receiving a degree from Colorado State University in Biology, Howell pursued a successful career managing stock brokerage firms in Denver. In 1993, he left his position as manager of a stockbroker firm to pursue his passion for the arts full-time.

Early Life
Rick Howell was born in 1957 at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Richard and Minnie Howell (nee Cox). He was a fourth generation native of the state, "whose earliest ancestors arrived in covered wagons".

As his father was a mechanical engineer for Sandia Laboratories, Howell spent his child and young adulthood in Albuquerque. By the age of 15, Rick worked at Customwood manufacturing, making carved wood grills, doors and stuccoed buildings.

College
After his freshman year at the University of New Mexico, Howell transferred to Southwest Oklahoma State University. While in Oklahoma, Rick honed his watercolor skills by studying with his neighbor, artist Brent Gibson. It was here that Rick began making a small amount of money from his art. Rick then transferred to Colorado State University, where he earned a degree in Biochemistry and Biology. "My CSU education prepared me for my professional career, both as a business person and as a successful artist," Howell shared in an Alumni Profile in the 2011/2012 Winter edition of the Colorado State Magazine.

After College
After a brief job working as a chemist for the oil refineries in West Texas' Permian Basin, Howell decided to shift his focus and moved to Denver to begin a career as a stockbroker. He began working with Fidelity, and eventually rose to manage three branches of the brokerage firm Quick and Reilley. When asked why he left the finance business, Howell said: "I had always wanted to be a painter. But I didn't think you could make a living off of it...One day I was driving and I suddenly looked over at the guy next to me who looked like he didn't have much, but he looked like he was enjoying life. In that moment I just realized that money wasn't my main goal in life. I just wanted to follow my dream--to paint...I turned in my resignation two days later."

Life as an Artist
Howell drew inspiration from the wilderness that surrounded his studio at the mouth of the Conejos Canyon in the Southern San Juan Mountains, as well as the diverse adjacent terrain of the Colorado-New Mexico borderlands. In 1997, while in Denver, Howell reconnected with Candice Pulliam, manager of Knox Gallery. Upon reviewing his portfolio, she offered to carry his work at the gallery, and so his career as a landscape painter began.

Rick lived in a 150-year-old adobe home and studio that he renovated in Mogote, Colorado, a village more than a town just four miles north of the New Mexico State line at the mouth of Conejos Canyon in the southern San Juan Mountains. The property was the town's original general store, with walls two feet thick, viga ceilings, and pine wood floors. He lived here until his death in 2012 at the age of 55.

Howell founded Art for Endangered Landscapes in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, in the hope of preserving the landscapes he loved to paint.

Technique
Howell is best known for his take on views of the Western American landscape, derived from his direct on-site observations and impressions. Highly studied in light, color and shadow, Howell creates highly ordered scenes which juxtapose blurred elements with sharp details. Howell often utilizes the overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist to elicit an emotional response. A member of the American Impressionist Society, he combines elements of both impressionism and realism in his paintings. Accomplished artist, Kevin Macpherson writes, "Rick sought to find deeper meaning in his plein air paintings, and, because of this, his paintings have the power to uplift the viewer by offering a deeper visual experience".

Howell spent most of his work time outdoors, painting en plein air for weeks at a time, even in winter. Of this, Howell said, "plein air paintings have a raw honesty that one is not able to get from working from a photograph in the studio."

Death
Rick Howell died on November 3rd, 2012, at his home in Mogote, Colorado.

Book
In 2007, Howell began writing his book "Chasing Shadows", which was published posthumously in 2017. The book is titled as such because, in Howell's own words,"human nature is to never be content, and this may be a good thing. Chasing shadows is how masterpieces are made and lives are fulfilled. It is what drives an artist's life's journey".

Museum Shows

 * 2012 Fechin Museum Invitational  August 25th
 * 2012 A.R Mitchell Memorial Museum May 5th
 * 2012 - Waterhouse Gallery, one-man show, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2011 A.R. Mitchell Memorial Museum of Western Art, National Invitational Painting Exhibition, Trinidad CO
 * 2011 C.M. Russell Museum, The Russell Art Show & Sale, Great Falls MT
 * 2011Total Arts, two-man show with Huihan Liu, Taos NM
 * 2011Tierney Fine Art, Bozeman MT
 * 2011Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole WY
 * 2011Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver CO

Individual and Group Shows

 * 2018 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe NM
 * 2011Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara CO
 * 2010 Fine Art Studio Online's Informed Collector, featured as a Highly Collectible Fine Artist
 * 2010Tierney Fine Art, Bozeman MT
 * 2010Total Arts Gallery, Taos NM
 * 2010 Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2010Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver CO
 * 2010Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole WY
 * 2009 Astoria Fine Art, Pieces of Wyoming, Jackson Hole WY
 * 2009 18th Annual Colorado Governor's Show Invitational, Loveland Museum, Loveland CO
 * 2009 Sunset Art Gallery, Life and Leisure Show, Amarillo TX
 * 2009Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver CO
 * 2009 Tierney Fine Art, Bozeman MT
 * 2009 Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2009 Total Arts Gallery, Taos NM
 * 2008 17th Annual Colorado Governor's Show Invitational, Loveland Museum, Loveland CO
 * 2008 Waterhouse Gallery, Invitational Landscape Show, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2008 Sunset Art Gallery, Amarillo TX
 * 2008 Tierney Fine Art, Bozeman MT
 * 2008 Total Arts Gallery, Quiet Dramas, Taos NM
 * 2008 Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver CO
 * 2008 Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2008 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2007 16th Annual Colorado Governor's Show Invitational, Loveland Museum, Loveland CO
 * 2007 27th Annual Governor's Invitational, Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show and Sale, Old Western Museum, Cheyenne WY
 * 2007Howard/Mandville Gallery, Love of the Land Invitational, Kirkland WA
 * 2007Greenhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara CA
 * 2007Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver CO
 * 2007 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2007 Wendt Gallery, Landscape Show Invitational, Laguna Beach CA
 * 2007 Scissortail Gallery of Fine Art, Owasso OK
 * 2006 26th Annual Governor's Invitational, Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show and Sale, Old Western Museum, Cheyenne WY
 * 2006Howard/Mandville Gallery, Invitational, Kirkland WA
 * 2006 Greenhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
 * 2006 Gallery A, Taos, NM
 * 2005 Ernest Fuller Fine Art, Denver, CO
 * 2005 Willow Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
 * 200525th Annual Governor's Invitational, Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Art Show and Sale, Old Western Museum, Cheyenne, WY
 * 2005 Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio TX
 * 2005 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2005 Mad Creek Gallery, Steamboat Springs CO
 * 2004 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2004 Mad Creek Gallery, Autumn in Portugal, Steamboat Springs CO
 * 2003 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2002 Scissortail Gallery of Fine Art, Owasso OK
 * 2002 Gallery A, Taos NM
 * 2001 Knox Gallery, Denver CO
 * 2001 Contemporary Southwest Gallery, Santa Fe NM
 * 2001 Gallery A, Taos NM

Awards

 * 2006 Society of Master Impressionists International Exhibition, Best of Show, Andy's Ranch
 * 2006American Impressionist Society, National Show, Award of Excellence, Wind
 * 2006 American Impressionist Society, National Show, Award of Excellence
 * 2005 American Impressionist Society, National Show, 1st Place, Fall Color
 * 2005 American Impressionist Society, National Show, Honorable Mention, Conejos River
 * 2005 Salon International Museum of Contemporary Masters, Award of Excellence, Tributaries
 * 2005 Salon International, International Museum of Contemporary Masters, Award of Excellence, December on the Rim
 * 2005 Oil Painters of America, National Show
 * 2004Oil Painters of America, National Show, Award of Excellence, On Any Given Day
 * 2003 Oil Painters of America, National Show, Award of Excellence, Moon Whispers

Publications

 * February 2011Southwest Art, Landscape Painting issue, My World Southwest Art article
 * September 2009 Western Art Collector, Visions of Wyoming
 * March-April 2008 Fine Art Connoisseur, Selecting the Right Frame
 * July 2008 American Art Collector, Quiet Dramas
 * October 2006 American Artist, Award Winners
 * December 2005 Southwest Art, Long Time Coming
 * July 2003 International Artist, Award Winners
 * July 2003 Art of the West, What's News
 * July 2003 Southwest Art, On the Scene
 * December 2003 Southwest Art, Colorado Calling
 * November 2001 Southwest Art, Artists to Watch
 * June 2000 Southwest Art, Art Event