Ron Arthaud
Ron Arthaud
Plein air painter
Plein air painter
Artist
Statement
Artist
I love to see the abstract in nature, squinting, closing one eye, imagining a painting. My paintings are often about capturing the beauty in ordinary, discarded things: rusty cars, a broken down fence, the shadows cast from old pickets in the snow.ll becomes a composition, a subject, something my eye wants to linger over. I need to be right there in the environment, holding still, to find a composition to capture the real color I see with my palette of primaries. My goal is that the “abstract” designs I paint retain the feeling of space, electricity, and interaction of the objects, and ultimately express a feeling of place.
Ron Arthaud
Ron Arthaud
Ron was born and raised near St. Paul,Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota in Duluth, on the shores of Lake Superior. He received a BFA in 1984. From 1984 – 1987, he was a full-time student Atelier LeSueur, a small Atelier LeSueur, a small classical realist art school in the Minneapolis area. There he studied under Richard Lack among others, and focused on learning how to “see,” painting and drawing directly from nature, models, and still-lives.
In 1989, he moved West and ended up by chance in the Mendocino, California area where he found a great supportive community of artists and friends. Ron had his first solo show there in 1990. At that same time, he began teaching and facilitating life drawing groups.
In 1992, he packed up and moved to southern France, in the countryside east of Toulouse. There he painted, taught some, and shipped his finished work back to a gallery in Mendocino.
In 1995, he returned to the states and traveled around the Southwest, looking for a place he could build a home and live as a full-time artist. At a friend's suggestion, he made a trip to Tuscarora, Nevada, and fell in love with the ghost town, bought an old ruin from the 1870’s, and got to work restoring it.
Today Ron and his wife, jeweler
Gail Rappa, their son Theo & daughter Serafina live year round in Tuscarora, making art and restoring their home.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
2015 Tuscarora
Carson City Community Center’s Sierra Room
851 E. William Street, Carson City, Nevada
2014 Painting the West Stremmel Gallery 1400 South Virginia Street
| Reno, Nevada 89502
2013 Painting the West Stremmel Gallery 1400 South Virginia Street
| Reno, Nevada 89502
2007 Renown Health Center: Permanent Collection, Reno,
Nevada
2006 Three person exhibit: Great Basin Gallery
20Anniversary Exhibition, Carson City Courthouse,
Carson City, Nevada
2004 Two-person exhibit, Nash Gallery, Crockett, CA.
2004 Nevada Touring Initiative, NevadaMuseum of Art,
Reno, Nevada
2002 Solo Exhibit, William Zimmer Gallery, Mendocino,
California
2002 Solo Exhibit, RenoCity Hall, Reno, Nevada
2001 Guest Artist, NevadaMuseum of Art, Reno, Nevada
2001 Group Show, Contemporary Arts Collective,
Las Vegas, Nevada
2000 Invitational exhibit, WesternFolk-LifeCenter, Elko,
Nevada
2000 Solo Exhibit, Main Street Gallery, Murphy, California
2000 Solo Exhibit, Northeastern NevadaMuseum, Elko,
Nevada
1998 Get Real Group show, Galleria Mesa, Mesa, Arizona
1995 Solo Exhibit, Gallery Mendocino, Mendocino, CA.
1994 Solo Exhibit, Gallery Mendocino, Mendocino, CA.
1994 Group show, Le Chien Vert, Lacrosille, France
1994 One-person exhibit, Sparkasse Bank, Grunstadt,
Germany
1993 Solo Exhibit, Gallery Mendocino, Mendocino, CA.
1993 Solo Exhibit, Chamber of Commerce, Castres, France
1992 Two-Person exhibit, Winona Gallery, Mendocino, CA
1991 Solo Exhibit, Showcase Gallery, Mendocino, CA
1991 Solo Exhibit, NorthCoast Artists, Fort Bragg, CA
1990 Juried Participant, FortBraggCenter for the Arts,
Fort Bragg, California
1990 Two-person exhibit, Showcase Gallery,
Mendocino, CA
Education
Education
1993-1994 Plein Air Painting Residency, Southern France
1989-1992 Continuing student, figure painting and drawing College of the Redwoods, Fort Bragg, California
1987-1988 University of Minnesota, Art History, Languages, History of Architecture University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus
1987 Portrait student Richard Lack, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1984-1987 Full-time student, Atelier Le Sueur, Excelsior, Minnesota
1980-1984 University of Minnesota, B.F.A. Studio Arts; School & Department Honors University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota
Teaching
Teaching
1997-2006 Painting and Drawing Great BasinCollege, Elko,
Nevada
2006-2007 Plein Air Instructor, St. Mary’s Art Center,
Virginia City, Nevada
2000 Plein Air Instructor Live Art, Soreze, France
1998 Plein air Instructor MendocinoArtCenter,
Mendocino, California
1994-1995 Plein Air Instructor Live Art, Santa Rosa,
California
1994 Plein Air Instructor Live Art, Soreze, France
1991 Plein Air Instructor Le Chien Vert, Lacrosille,
France
1993 Plein Air Instructor MendocinoArtCenter,
Mendocino, California
1993 Plein Air Instructor Le Chien Vert Lacrosille,
France
1991 Plein Air Instructor MendocinoArtCenter
1991 Lecturer “Early California Landscape Painters”
MendocinoArtCenter
1990-1991 Facilitated life drawings sessions Mendocino Art
Center