• HOME
  • PERCEPTION
  • LIGHT AND COLOR IN RELIEF
  • RELIEF LIGHTING
  • INTAGLIO RELIEFS 1996-2018
    • 2018 Selected Intaglio Reliefs
    • 2017 Selected Intaglio Reliefs
    • 2016 Selected Intaglio Reliefs
    • 2015 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2014 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2013 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2012 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2011 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2010 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2009 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2008 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2007 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2006 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2005 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2004 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2003 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2002 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2001 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 2000 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 1999 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 1998 Selected Inaglio Reliefs
    • 1997 Selected Intaglio Reliefs
    • DANCER RELIEFS >
      • Dancer Cutouts
    • WHITE INTAGLIO RELIEFS >
      • Nudes
      • People/Portraits
      • Interiors
      • COLORED INTAGLIO RELIEFS >
        • Small Sunbather Reliefs
  • RELIEFS 1975-1996
    • 1986 Selected Reliefs
    • 1987 Selected Reliefs
    • 1988 Selected Reliefs
    • 1989 Selected Reliefs
    • 1990 Selected Reliefs
    • 1991 Selected Reliefs
    • 1992 Selected Reliefs
    • 1993 Selected Reliefs
    • 1994 Selected Reliefs
    • 1995 Selected Reliefs
    • 1996 Selected Reliefs
    • ORIGINS OF RELIEF >
      • RELIEF PROCESS
    • Early New York Reliefs 1975-78 >
      • Early Reliefs on Cape Cod 1977-82
  • OTHER RICHARD PERRY ART
    • SCULPTURES
    • DRAWINGS >
      • PORTRAIT DRAWINGS
      • FIGURE DRAWINGS
      • STILL LIFE DRAWINGS
      • CARICATURES
      • PHOTOGRAPHY
      • SCULPTURES
      • EARLY ART WORK 1970-75
  • ART EXHIBITIONS, ETC.
  • BIO
  • CONTACT INFO
  INTAGLIO RELIEF ART
FOLLOWING THIS SECTION ON THE ORIGINS OF RELIEF ARE FURTHER EXPLANATIONS including the process for making intaglio reliefs
ORIGINS OF RELIEF

Origins​ of Relief Painting

Picture

   In 1975, while studying drawing and painting at the Art Students League and sculpture at the New School, I decided to portray what I was saw in a new way.  After about a year of false starts, I began reading up on the physiology of vision at Flower 5th Avenue hospital library and was attracted to Egyptian reliefs at the Met.  I realized It might be possible to create visual illusions in a shallow three dimensional space. 
         
             One day I decided to do a still life of pears on a plate.  Instead of painting on the front of the canvas, I pressed some sculpture clay into the back of the stretched canvas, forming a tablet.   I sketched the outlines of the pears and the plate on the clay with my brush handle and then built up the pear forms with more clay.   

             For the cast shadows, I instinctively hollowed out the clay.  The light from the north windows of my 7th Street studio lit up the pears and created  real shadows in the hollows.  I was stunned by the concept of working directly with light and shadow on a relief surface.  I had fallen through two dimensions into a new realm.

             I have been exploring this realm ever since, marking trail with my reliefs, now numbering over 1,200 original pieces and many more editions.  I have learned a new way of seeing, and by necessity have invented new materials, easels, tools and methods of working.  After 40 years, I have barely scratched the surface. 


            


Picture
First Relief 1975-01 Pears     Acrylic on clay  8.5"x9.5"x1"
Here are photos of my 7th Street NYC studio, my 649 Mai  Street Brewster, MA studio, my 1772 Main Street, Brewster studio, tool, materials, etc.