User:Ricron/sandbox

Schmitt Hall fine artists are unique colaborative pastel painters. Ron Schmitt and Ric Hall both from Washington State create pastel paintings that the two of them work on standing side by side painting at the same time on the same 18 inch by 24 inch pastel paper.

The two who stumbled into one anothers sphire in 1969. Their friendship build over the coming years. Early on their passion for youthfull exploration, sports, and comics knit the foundation that has supported over 30 years of colaborative work.

Both having developed drawing skills that gave them confidence in creating comic like stories for their own amusment. In the nature of the professional comic artist colaboration was the norm where one person would draw and the next would ink the comics. Ron would draw and Ric would ink and both were satisfide with their individaul accomplishments and the finished product.

As time passed Ron moved into his coleget carrer that started at the University of Washington persuing a degree in Engineering Ric followed his path using Football to provide him with scholarships first at Columbia Basin College in Washington's Tri-cities and then at the University of New Mexico. College for both took a sicuritous route for both until in 1975 they found themselves at Western Washington College at the same time. Ron who was already insconced in the Bellingham community invited Ric to share his room in the appartment he was renting with Jimmy. During this reunion the two shared the single room as a bedroom dressing room and studio resulting in Ron finding sleeping space in the front room for the most part. Pressed into these close confines tested the ability of the two "coigsist, share resources and studio space.

Durning the next half dozen years the two artist challenged their individual selves in a miriade of ways leading up to a point where each made the personal disision to be an artist. In 1981 Ron returned to the Northwest and found employment at the federeal records center in Seattle where Ric had been working as an intermitent employee. Both Ron and Ric enjoyed the Records Center's work schedule that allowed for hard work and early dismissal once they daily schedule had been completed. With this schedule the two were able to spend long hours in the studio. In Ron's family home basement AKA the studio. During this time of discovery Ron and Ric spent as much as 60 hourd a week after their work at the Federal Records Center. Some of the time spent by the two burgening artist was devoted to experimentation with new mediums; water color, guache, oils, Acrylic, egg tempra and finaly chalk pastels. Ric was givent a set of Grumbacher portaiture chalk pastels by an admierer who had received the set as a gift from thier grandfather. The set was old when they received it but unused and ready for some love. The two were not new at collabotation just new at collaborating with pastels. Knowing next to nothing about the medium the started, by standing on opposite sides of a drawing table, with a 14" x 17" inch piece of purple construction paper Ric had been saving in his "unborn" folder of unused micslianious art paper. When they were "finished" they had each done an experimental illustration from the direction that they had been working from. Standing back from the piece, looking at it on the easel it looked OK from each of the directions that it had been worked on and it look OK in general. The two realized that there was unique immediacy with the pastels that they hadn't experiance with any of the other mediums that they had fiddled around with. Over the insueing months Ron and Ric proceeded to experiment with the pastels learning agreat deal about the fexability and fagility of the pastels and the need to stablize the work that had been done inorder to layer the pastels ontop of one another that way it seemed Edgar Degas must have worked. In time it was a fixative receipt of Degas' that became the defacto solution of choice.