Richard Mayhew: Inner Terrain

“I paint more from the inside out; with a sensitivity to nature while living the experience of the painting.”

Richard Mayhew works from inside the painting. His unique practice blends multiple genres in the history of art including Baroque landscape, Impressionism, plein-air, Abstract Expressionism, and Color Field painting using mechanisms from each. He calls his landscapes “moodscapes” as an introspective excavation of the terrain of his mind. Mayhew’s use of color is intuitive and is alive with emotion. When his work is viewed from a distance, fields of color become fields of space and resolve as landscape. Contrary to most traditional landscape painters, he works from memory, laying down fields of abstract color on the canvas, as if in a trance. When viewed up close, we are seduced by the paint itself that ultimately reveals yet another abstract layer.

Mayhew’s African American and Native American ancestries inform his dreamlike scenes, which are saturated in vibrant colors, including shades of red and burnt earth pigments that suggest evidence of, as he puts it, “blood in the soil.” His father was African American and Shinnecock; his mother, African American and Cherokee-Lumbee. His emotional and spiritual connection to the natural world was nurtured by his paternal grandmother, who supported his art endeavors and schooled him in Native American traditions. Born in 1924 and raised in a small town near Amityville, New York, on Long Island’s south shore, Richard Mayhew’s passion for painting was sparked early in life by viewing art by 18th- and 19th-century artists such as James Peale and the landscape painters of The Hudson River School.

During the height of Abstract Expressionism. Mayhew studied at the Brooklyn Museum’s Pratt Institute, and Columbia University, in the 1950s. Studies in Europe helped to further expand his vision and he discovered interdisciplinary practices. Mayhew has always taught a mindset of creative continuum and encouraged students to think outside the box or norm. At age 99, he continues to explore his innovative self and capture the spirit of a landscape rather than the objective reality of the empirical scene. He uses abstract shapes to manipulate the eye and create an optic response or the illusion of time and space. Mayhew repeatedly says “painting is a state of mind.”

Mayhew was equally respected as an educator and taught at numerous institutions in addition to Penn State, including the Brooklyn Museum and Pratt Institute (1963), Art Students League of New York (1965), Smith College (1969), Hunter College (1971), California State University, East Bay (1974), San Jose State University (1975), Sonoma State University (1976), University of California, Santa Cruz (1992), and others. When he retired as Professor Emeritus from Penn State in 1991, he moved to Santa Cruz County in California and his work exploded with vibrant color.

As Richard Mayhew approaches his centennial birthday, he remains an active painter developing an inventive mind and continuing to improvise his techniques. His work opens a dialogue for larger conversations about personal narrative, an innovative use of color, spirituality, and a lifetime of creative mindset.

Richard Mayhew: Inner Terrain is guest curated by Shelby Graham and Kajahl.

This exhibition was organized by Sonoma Valley Museum of Art with curators Shelby Graham and Kajahl.