Ron Parker
Ron began painting as a career a little late in life. At age 35, he was inspired, after seeing an exhibition, to try painting wildlife himself. His first effort was successful, and he quit work at the lumberyard and began painting full time. Using watercolour, he started doing vignetted paintings of birds and mammals. Within four months, he was selling originals through the Harrison Gallery in Vancouver, BC. Over the next 15 years, Ron continued to produce wildlife paintings before branching out to landscapes. Eleven articles have been written about Ron's wildlife paintings in national and international magazines. In addition, his pieces have been reproduced in three books: From the Wild, Voices from the Wild, and Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
From 1981 until 2003, Ron has had 26 one-person shows of his original paintings, some sellouts. Also, Ron was commissioned in 1993 by the Royal Canadian Mint to do a collector set of four coins depicting the Sea Otter. From 2003 to 2012, Ron was painting acrylic landscapes using an 'essentialist' style, focusing on the shapes and contours of the landscape, omitting detail. Ron's latest series – realistic, atmospheric landscapes painted in oil – represent a marked change from his original pieces. "I do my paintings in a method that few oil painters employ. I begin with a canvas on which the landscape to be painted is drawn quite accurately. Then, I begin painting with the upper left-hand corner background and progress down and to the right, rendering the painting completely until I reach the bottom right-hand corner. It is all done with one coat of paint using very little medium. There are times I wait for it to dry before completing some of the details, but most are done with one coat of paint, wet into wet".
Ron and his family now live in Victoria. "I am fortunate to live in an incredibly beautiful part of the world. From the West Coast of British Columbia to the glorious Rocky Mountains and the Prairies beyond, I find inspiration everywhere I look. I strive to convey the awe and love I have for these places through my art. I hope that others can feel the same emotions when they view my paintings."
