Richard Raiselis’ view from above

Richard Raiselis Palimpsest: Site of the Boston Massacre 2005 Oil on Linen 22″ x 24″

Painting large cityscapes in a busy downtown area can be sheer madness trying to keep your wet paint off the coats of passers by and more importantly, preserving your sanity and concentration. Richard Raiselis finds the solution by setting up his easel from upper floors of buildings with a good view below. This upper vantage point encourages novel compositional approaches, shown here, where the ground is viewed parallel with the picture plane. This emphases the pictures flatness but still allows the space seen by the building’s perspective in the lower left corner.

The strong graphic punch and precision of the crosswalk lines contrast with quirky road construction chalk markings, almost like musical notes blown off their staffs by some avant guarde Jazz musician like Ornette Coleman. Please don’t listen to any reviewers drone on about there being no people walking on these desolate streets or alienation of the lonely painter. Why would you ever want messy people blocking the view of this marvelous pavement!

I’m not sure what to say about this view being the site of the Boston Massacre, maybe the chalk markings could be seen as some sort of record of battle movements but I suspect it was just a cool side note given by this wonderfully inventive cityscape painter. He is also an Associate Professor of Painting at the Boston University College of Fine Arts, and shows at the Gallery Naga in Boston.

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