Santa Barbara on Canvas

Richard Schloss finds inspiration as an artist through life in Santa Barbara

By Hana-Lee Sedgwick

Artist 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 Barbara Museum of Natural History. He’s also been commissioned to paint the Santa Barbara Historical Museum and Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and is the only living Santa Barbara artist to have work displayed in four museums on the Central Coast.

While Schloss didn’t grow up in this area, Santa Barbara feels like home to him, though it wasn’t until he moved up to Marin and Napa for several years that he realized how much Santa Barbara has shaped him as an artist. “The way the light works in Santa Barbara contributes to who I am as an artist,” he says. “While it was interesting to paint different scenes like vineyards, painting comes more naturally to me here.”

His style of oil painting blends traditionalism with impressionism, using a dramatic treatment of light to showcase the incredible scenery of California. “I love the unique things about Santa Barbara, from its east to west mountain ranges to how the sun sets over the ocean,” Schloss says. “Every painting is an unpredictable challenge, but here it’s more conducive to the way I see the world. Or maybe living here has made me see the world in a different way, a way specific to Santa Barbara.”

Since the summer of 2018, Schloss’s work has been on display in his own gallery, Santa Barbara Fine Art, which he runs with his wife, Julie. Located at the historic Arlington Plaza, it’s here that the two have created a welcoming space to showcase his paintings, as well as the work of over a dozen other artists. many of whom he’s painted alongside for years. Capturing the spirit, culture, and allure of Santa Barbara on canvas, featured paintings include landscapes, portraits and narrative scenes that celebrate life in and around Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Fine Art is an active participant in the downtown First Thursday Art Walks and hosts regular exhibit receptions with wine tastings and music. Schloss even leads painting classes and workshops in his studio attached to the gallery, to help other artists and inspiring artists enhance their skills. “I love the location of our gallery, that there’s parking and the feeling of community here,” he says. “We’re very happy to have found our permanent home.”