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Ricky Schaede’s ‘Beautiful Wild’ art show debuting next week

August 21, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

It seems Ricky Schaede’s mission in life is to show the magic in nature.

From Aug. 25 to Aug. 30 local residents will be able to see Ricky Schaede’s Art Show, Beautiful Wild, his brilliant new collection, staged at Maggiolly Art at 158 Broadway.

“There are 32 works of art, mainly paintings and some drawings.,” he told the Citizen, very excited, during a recent telephone interview. “I just have to finish my labels and then, hang the show. We’re using the whole studio; we’re going to transform it into a gallery.”

Calling it Beautiful Wild, he told us, “At the moment, it’s based around animal characters, wild animals, I depicted them in beautiful ways. Then each painting has its own deeper meaning as well.

“I really want to remind people about the beauty of life,” he explained. “Every painting is full of magic for people, to remind everyone how beautiful the natural world is. Remember to look at things through a magical lens and not always be so serious,” adding, “Most paintings have a short story that goes with them.”

Speaking of stories, Mr. Schaede has written a kids’ book” and is still working on the illustrations. 

“I’m saving my book launch for when I can have a big event [post COVID-19],” he commented, “It’s called ‘Creatures’.”

His focus right now though, remains solely on his upcoming art show. 

“I decided to do this art show, and what’s good about this is I can only have a few people go through at a time and so they can take their time and enjoy it on a deeper level.” 

Normally the gallery space is a large studio, in which Maggiolly hosts art lessons and workshops.

“The classes have been great [this summer], totally awesome. We’ve had to take a reduced number of students and come up with some creative ways to make it happen safely and we’re really excited to have classes in the fall with adults.”

Talking about his teaching methods and focus, he said, “I teach the fundamentals first. Four of the classes we do are guided and, then, they our participants have to decide what they want to draw after the technical side and, then, open it up to explore what they want to create.

“For me I’ve always been very inspired by the craft of painting,” he said. “That’s the one side, is the craft and I try to teach the craft, the techniques of drawing and painting. Then, I’m very excited about the inspiration, so, in the classes, I work on inspiration.”

He said, “You can give people the tools and then they have to find it within themselves. If you try to force it, it doesn’t work.” 

Naturally, the subject of this year’s lockdown came into the conversation. 

Ricky Schaede said, “A lot of these paintings, I actually did during the lockdown. In the community, there’s a lot of artists struggling to feel that inspiration. For me, I struggled with that and then there was the moment when I said, ‘this is enough!’ Then, not painting really bothered me. I gotta paint!”

He conceded, “I still caught a little bit of the news every day, but I’m really hard on myself if I’m not working. I think it’s important for artists to make art at this time – it becomes a record. Plus, a lot of people have gotten into art in that period, which is great.”

Back to the art show, he commented, “The physical exhibition is on from Aug. 25 to 30. And following that, it’s going be online for the whole month afterwards, a virtual exhibition. To share with the whole world.”

Ricky is no stranger to the gallery scene. He ran his first event more than seven years ago. 

“My first show was in 2013. I was working for the coffee shop next door, Euphoria, and they let me have my art show there. Euphoria is still open but it’s under new management with the son, who loves to cook.

“My show there was Animalia and, now, seven years later, here’s Beautiful Wild!

“I paint lots of animals,” he commented, “And outer space. There’s still some of that in this show. Cosmic imagery, I just can’t avoid it – it ‘s just who I am.”

Expanding on that point, Ricky continued “In terms of cosmic, we want to explore; it’s the final frontier; it’s a natural part of our evolution.”

As an artist, “It’s also super majestic and a lot of mystery. It appeals to a deeper level: we are part of it. We’re of the material that we are in the heart of stars.”

While his first show in 2013 was at Euphoria and his most recent is being staged next door at Maggiolly, this is far from his perimeters. Mr. Schaede has shown his art in Toronto, and his paintings are hung in private collections in the USA, Australia and Bali.

His promise for this show: “People are going to see some really interesting paintings. There haven’t been many (local) exhibitions and they’ll connect with my paintings. I think there’s something in this show – it will be uplifting and it will remind them of the magic in the world.”


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