ART
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Santa Barbara on Canvas Richard Schloss finds inspiration as an artist through life in Santa Barbara
By Hana-Lee Sedgwick
Top: Thousand Steps. Oil on canvas. Bottom: Rain Reflections on State Street. Oil on Canvas. 72
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rtist Richard Schloss, who was raised in the Bay Area, fell under the Santa Barbara spell early in his childhood while visiting his grandparents in Hope Ranch during summer and winter vacations. When it came time to apply for college, Schloss had only one place in mind – UCSB – and enrolled in 1971. Surrounded by a family of scientists, Schloss decided to pursue physics because, he says, “It was what I knew.” He soon realized that he wasn’t too keen on his declared major and started to question what he wanted to do. Unsure of his plan, he enrolled in summer school at UC Berkeley while home for a few months, signing up for two drawing classes in the architecture department. “I really liked these classes, but I didn’t really care about drawing buildings,” he recalls, admitting that soon something just clicked. “It was like a flip switched in my brain, though, and I realized that ‘I’m an artist.’ ” When he returned to UCSB, Schloss changed his major to art and went into his first painting class having no prior painting experience. “Maybe I was a little naive or arrogant, but I had the right amount of confidence to believe that I was going to be great at this,” Schloss says. “Part of me thinks that the only way to survive as an artist is to believe that you’re the best.” Though Schloss pursued a subject matter he knew nothing about, he wholeheartedly believed he had found his path. The only thing he needed to do was figure out what type of artist to be. “I didn’t know which direction to take,” he remembers. “I started by seeing what other people were doing and trying what I found interesting, feeling it out as I went.” Schloss dabbled in figure drawing, pastels, abstract airbrush painting, and pretty much every medium available, but it wasn’t until he attended a graduate student’s art show that he considered specializing in landscapes. “Back then, pretty landscapes weren’t considered serious subject matter,” he says. “But then I heard about this grad student, Michael DeRose, who would ditch his other classes on a nice day to paint outside. His show was entirely made up of his landscape paintings. It was an amazing realization for me.” Inspired to paint en plein air, he decided to focus all his efforts on painting landscapes, not dwelling on whether or not he could make a career out of it. “Once I began painting, I pretty much never did anything else,” he says. “I didn’t know how I was going to be successful, but there weren’t any alternative options in my mind. Luckily, my parents were supportive of my career choice, despite the narrow prospects.” After graduating from UCSB in 1976, Schloss was asked to show his work in a Montecito gallery that same year, and began to consistently sell his paintings. He went on to earn his master’s from UCSB in 1979 and the following year, spent eight months abroad on an award scholarship, spending time in Turkey and Italy to further his expertise. A few years later, while back in Santa Barbara, he was asked to join the Oak Group, an exclusive group of painters dedicated to painting on location, of which he is still an active member. Since its inception in 1986, the group has held over 100 exhibitions benefitting over 20 nonprofit conservation organizations. It’s limited to 25 members. In 1992, Schloss was chosen to paint the diorama backgrounds for the Cartwright Interactions Hall at the Santa W W W. F O O D – H O M E . C O M
