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I’m a fine artist specializing in oil on canvas, pencil, pen and ink, and digital, and fusions of these elements. ​I also design and paint murals, and artistic outdoor signage.

​​I have completed paintings, graphic designs, and other art  on a variety of subjects. This website is selection of my work throughout the years.  One series is the oil painting triptych, titled: On The Bowsprit, Walls, and Sailing Away, which depicts the life of my Dad. Another group of paintings are dedicated to indigenous people of the U.S — people, stories and scenes that have power for me visually, as with Ishi and Sacred.

The painting Lebanon Gibran, was created in response to the Lebanon war in the early 1980s. Life Sentence was painted from a photo I took at the Dallas Zoo decades ago, before zoos started developing large outdoor enclosures.

 My first oil painting was in jr. high school and was a landscape. I find landscapes a real challenge—depicting a balanced but wild nature. Old Growth is from a photo study of a very old Jeffrey pine in the Lake Tahoe region. As with Old Growth, I often use the camera to capture studies and textures to aid in future and current work, mural production, or just to take pictures of interest to me.

​ In commercial art, I have produced graphic designs for businesses, school and sporting events, and other organizations in the U.S. and Canada. My commissions include The Dallas Natural History Museum, D Magazine, Dallas Meditation Center, Four Bullets Brewery, the YMCA, among others. ​

My work has been displayed in galleries in California and Texas, including the Prairie House Gallery in Lubbock, Texas and D’ART in Dallas. I won best of show at the Texas State Fair in 1981 (Sacred).  In 2019, I was commissioned to paint a large outdoor mural for the YMCA in Richardson, . One project I especially enjoyed was the outdoor art signage for Four Paws Animal Hospital in Rowlett, Texas.

Endlessly drawing and doodling while in class, artistic expression emerged in me at an early age. This particular creative trait did not exactly endear me to my teachers; however, it did provide an important vehicle in developing interest and skills for my future artwork. When I painted my first oil painting in junior high in 1963, I fell in love with the medium. I also discovered my love for "methods and materials," the craft side of creativity, you might say. Throughout high school I continued to grow creatively and began thinking, “I might be an artist!”

My first paying job after high school was as a silkscreen craftsman where I learned the methods and materials for the art of silkscreen printmaking. I attended a local junior college where I took classes in life drawing, and clay and metal sculpture. Later, for a short I time, I attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California.

Pursuing further art interests, I moved to Los Angeles in 1974, where I met and married my partner in life, Patricia. In 1980, we moved to Texas and raised two wonderful children, Nathan and Leila, artists in their own right, who are now adults with important careers in medical science and history. Oh, we have two cats, Ogy and Tilly!

 

 I accept commissions and work with clients on a wide range of subject matter, including portraits of people and animals, children and pets. I accept commissions for painting landscapes, composites, and murals and also works in pencil and pen & ink. Much of my commercial art is now either entirely digital or a fusion of hand drawn work and digital processes, as with the ArtCards and T Shirt designs.

​Commissioned portraits and other images are created from photographs provided by the client, or photographed by me. In this busy life we all lead, sitting for portraiture is typically unrealistic for most people.

 

​If you are interested in purchasing available art or commissioning art services, please contact at rmcneillart01@gmail.com

I hope you enjoy the art at www.Richard-mcneill-art.com.