Cluster of Leaves by Richard Acton

Richard Acton, River City Art Association’s August Artist of the Month, is featured on the YouTube channel for the Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the library board suspended the Artist of the Month display in March and recently decided to continue in August with the virtual format.

Richard works with clay, wood and other media to construct his wall hangings.

A favorite past-time activity of Richard’s is to go to his home studio to work and create pieces of clay into art.  A relative newcomer to the creative process he has made a numerous amount of wall hangings to display around the Terre Haute area.

A background of teaching Industrial Arts to high school students plus working in industry has given Richard the knowledge of building and creating objects for their usefulness and beauty.  He began working with wood because of the practicality and availability of the materials but eventually decided that was not enough to satisfy the need to make things that reflected the happenings around him. 

After studying at John Campbell’s Folk Art School, Indiana State University and Torner Community Center in Deming Park — and lots of experimenting — within five years he was able to make wall hangings from the medium of clay. 

Spring Fern by Richard Acton

The technique that Richard developed is unique because the clay is actually a backdrop for his designs and pictures.  The clay is flattened into a size that will hold his vision and then drawn, painted with under glazes and glazes, fired in a kiln and then framed for presentation.  He says that each piece will take up to two weeks to complete because of drying the clay and getting it prepared for the kiln. Each of the pieces turn into a learning process due to the fact that there is  a lot of trial and error to get exactly the piece you intend to create.                   

Clay is a medium that does not always have to be shaped into a bowl, plate, vase or cup; there is an endless amount of creative items to make from this medium that has been used throughout time.

WATCH THE VIGO COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL FEATURING RICHARD’S ARTWORK (AS WELL AS HIS WIFE, EDITH’S, AS WABASH VALLEY ART GUILD’S AUGUST ARTIST OF THE MONTH)

AT https://youtu.be/kI63d49a79Q