RALPH FULTON


RALPH FULTON

Inspiration to paint comes to me in many ways:  nature, my immediate surroundings, figures, people in different environments in everyday activities, and some animals interacting with humans in indoor and outdoor spaces.  

I make paintings from experiences, also actions that I think are about to take place, sometimes dreams that I’ve never had.  I don’t really have an explanation for the icons in my paintings, they just help in building the composition and I like them.  Color to me is like a language that might convey a message or emotion of some lesson or experience I’m about to learn.  Viewers of my paintings sometimes become viewed by what or who is in the painting.  I paint using acrylics on wood panels and canvas.  

I studied art at Eastern Illinois University, BFA.  I worked under James and Peter Anderson at Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.   I owned Chicken Farm Pottery with Billy Ray Mangham and Ruth Richards in Nacogdoches, Texas.  I came to Austin in 1978 and raised a family of four children as a carpenter.  In 2014 while trying to inspire my young grandchildren to paint and love art, I became inspired along with them and have been painting every day since.  Along with making paintings, I build furniture and play trumpet with a band in Austin.