Rick Anderson, Untitled (Landscape with House), 1982. Watercolor on paper. 10 x 14 in. Framed in a curved hardwood frame, 16 1/2 x 20 1/2 in.
Excerpted from the artist’s biography:
Rick Anderson is a nationally acclaimed artist whose career has spanned more than 40 years. A native of Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta, he nurtured a passion for art from an early age. In imitation of his older brother, he could be found drawing most everywhere he went.
Rick began preparing for his career at a state junior college and then continued his education at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS, where he earned an undergraduate art degree and a Master of Arts Education degree. He began his twenty-five year teaching career in 1970, while simultaneously working as a professional artist. Over the course of his career in the Mississippi public educational system, Rick has taught art at every level from elementary school through university classes. Rick was also an adjunct art instructor at Mississippi College. Rick received his first art award at the GumTree Festival in Tupelo, MS in 1975. Since then, he has received over 150 awards in local, regional, and national art competitions.
He says, “Growing up in the Mississippi Delta has a strong impact on my art. The Delta is expansively flat and yet complex, with linear planes created by farmland, wooded areas and open fields that repeat, one after another, toward the horizon. My work reflects this complexity, but the Delta does not limit my art. As I travel the hills of Tupelo, the Piney Woods, the Coastal Area, throughout the United States or as Io travel abroad, I capture experiences and feelings of place. I also make quick sketches or capture reference photos with my camera. What I want to do is to keep the “feeling” of what I see so I can capture that on canvas later.”