Exhibition: July 27 – August 31, 2015

The Riverside Art Museum is proud to continue an ongoing series of mini-exhibition features highlighting artist-members who have received awards in previous Members’ Exhibitions. r. mike nichols was the Jury Award winner back in 2014.

Artist Statement:

As a child I always knew I would grow up to be an artist. I am so thankful to have been blessed with a talent to create. To have this goal from a very young age grounded me and gave me direction throughout my teenage years and post high school. I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Masters Degree in Art from California State University, Long Beach. I spent many years creating illustrations for magazines, card companies, design firms, and a non-profit musical theatre group. 

In 2008 I decided to devote myself full time to my art. After years of other priorities it was time to create art for myself and to work towards achieving some goals I had never considered before. The transparent watercolor medium has always been my first love. The world is filled with watercolor societies that hold annual international competitions and, to that end, I set about entering several of the ones that reside here in California. Along with the coveted acceptance into an International Show comes the reward of Signature Membership. This level of membership bestows upon the artist the privilege of using the society’s initials when signing a piece of art. To date, I have Signature Membership with the San Diego Watercolor Society and am close to that level with several other groups.

Another artistic milestone for me was my Artist level membership with the prestigious California Art Club, which was established in 1909. One must be granted this membership by a panel of artists who annually review the submissions from numerous candidates.

I recently began entering shows outside the United States. So far, my art has traveled to International Shows in Belgium, Greece, Italy, and China.  My watercolors have been published in Splash 14, Splash 16, and Splash 17 (Publication 2016). My work in acrylics was accepted into The Best of AcrylicWorks 2 and The Best of AcrylicWorks 3 (Publication 2016).