"Spring Lagoon" Painting

Landscape Painter in the Pacific Northwest working from direct experience, using drawings, photos and memories.

Artist Statement;
The environment I live in and the landscapes I travel to are the content of most of my work. Personal contact with a place provides the sensory information to create a convincing painting. My inspiration always begins with an experience in a landscape. Whether it’s a walk in a local park or a destination hike, what happens while in that location matters.

My earliest artistic influence came from the Zen Japanese aesthetic revealed in the encyclopedias in our home; then later, from the insights of the American abstract expressionists. Their conviction that meaningful, honest painting was best achieved through improvisation, motivated me. Though I am dedicated to interpreting the natural world, I do so as a secondary concern as I respond to the painting process taking place before me.

Memory is a key element as I manipulate the paint. When something within the character of that landscape emerges, I recognize it and build from there.

I believe that my frequent immersion into the environment informs my work in a subconscious manner and is revealed in the act of painting.

About the Artist;

Randall David Tipton’s work in the 1990s veered away from landscape toward more allegorical interpretations of nature. In time, the rain forests and wetlands surrounding Portland impelled him to focus on realism again. He showed at the Alysia Duckler Gallery, as well as in small communities throughout the Northwest.

In 2010, Randall David Tipton began to be awarded artist residencies at several institutions, allowing him to explore new landscapes on the Oregon coast, in the Trinity Alps, and in southeastern Wyoming. Most recently, he was Artist-in-Residence at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, Oregon; and Brush Creek Ranch, Saratoga, Wyoming.

During the Covid Pandemic, Randall used the historical moment to explore pure abstraction.

Work by Randall David Tipton is found in a number of corporate and public art collections, including those of Oregon Health Science University, The Coos Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Newsweek, and Eastern New Mexico University.