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Playing with light

Mark Richards takes traditional photography, printmaking to next artistic level with ‘luminous photo impressionism’
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Ethereal clouds streak across a powder-blue sky that fades into a cast of warm yellow and orange hues, the sun disappearing behind a distant mountain range, while in the foreground, treetops pop up, illuminated by the glowing rays that are quickly slipping away as day turns to night.

This universally awe-inspiring vista captured on a canvas titled "Sunset at Khyber" is just one of many brilliant natural scenes depicted by Whistler-based artist Mark Richards.

While there are scores of talented scenic photographers in Whistler, busily snapping away to capture the natural beauty of the region, Richards's work stands out from the rest, vibrant artistic renderings that aren't quite photograph or painting, alone.

"Everyone asks me, 'is that a painting or a photograph?' Usually it's a couple that's arguing, and I say, 'you're both right.' It's the best of both worlds," Richards explained with a smile.

Richards learned the art of photography and printmaking from his father, a well-known artist who worked at the National Gallery of Canada for almost 25 years, managing the photographic division and developing Canada's first multimedia division. As such, the young Richards grew up surrounded by darkrooms, developing chemicals and printing plates.

"Then eventually digital technology started to really catch up and become sophisticated enough that the quality was there to start working with fine art," Richards said.

There is, of course, a camp of old school film purists who are very technical and get caught up in the analytical process and technical rules.

"Some people don't even believe in cropping!" he exclaimed.

But the Richards family lives by a different artistic mantra: the rules are meant to be broken.

"For us, the photography is a very powerful component, a very powerful tool, but it's not the end-all, be-all; it's just one of our tools."

In 2005, Richards decided to quit his job as an electrical engineer and move to Nova Scotia to continue training with his father and developing their technique. Shortly after, he packed his possessions into a trailer and headed West, settling in the lush mountains of Whistler, where he developed his own distinct style and pushed the cutting-edge technique to its limits.

Their subject matter - breathtaking mountain scenes and Atlantic seascapes - may seem conservative, but their technique is what sets them apart.

Together, the father and son creative team have created a unique process of blending painting and photography, creating pieces that blur the lines between realism and impressionism. They call this technique "Luminous Photo Impressionism."

Richards's eyes light up and he starts making animated hand gestures as he explains the technical processes that are used in traditional film development to create a balance of light and shadow in any given photograph. Then, he delves into his own technique.

The process starts with a very high-resolution photograph, one that ideally captures lots of natural light of the scene. Then, Richards works with the negative, manipulating the texture, shadow, highlight and colours and applying his unique "signature sharpening technique" to the surface of each piece, to achieve a clarity that makes the images seem to leap off the canvas. Finally, the "photo impressionism" is laid directly on canvas using UV-protected, fade-resistant pigments, which allows Richards to paint with literally billions of colours on each negative. He works on perfecting each piece for weeks before it is finally ready to hang in the gallery.

Our interview is briefly interrupted by two women who ask Richards to dim the lights in his cozy gallery space; an odd request in most galleries, but Richards doesn't bat an eye at the demand. A small remote materializes and he swiftly darkens the room, the canvas transforming in front of our very eyes.

See, the process the Richards men have developed also happens to have a very powerful visual effect: when the lighting in the room changes, so does the illumination in the paintings. Shadows and the light shift across the canvas, almost as if the sun is setting or rising in the scene. Richards pushes the limits of illumination, manipulating light by using canvas made from "substrates" that reflect 90 per cent of incident light. This combination of translucent pigments and ultra-bright backgrounds causes the images to glow in extremely low light.

"It's pure, right-brain emotional art, basically colour and texture that has an effect on you," Richards explained. "That's why traditional painters will create all kinds of paint layers and thick, dripping paint - that's the texture part that you feel for. I have my texture, but it's not necessarily in traditional paint, it's the way I have the detail in my images."

Before opening his gallery space in the Hilton's Art Gallery Row almost three years ago, Richards debuted his work to the hordes of shoppers that descend on the Whistler Farmer's Market every Sunday during the summer months, testing the market to see if there was an appetite for his distinct style and technique. There was.

Over the past few years in the community, Richards has seen his canvases rolled up and packed up in seasonal workers' suitcases, destined to be stretched and hung in homes around the world, and adorning the walls of some of the finest homes in town.

"When people come back a year or two later saying how much they appreciate the work... I think that's the real satisfaction," he reflected.

Scattered amongst the staggering mountainscapes from the West Coast, the artist's self-titled gallery also features landscapes from the other side of the country - Gatineau Park near Ottawa and seaside scenes from the Bay of Fundy and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia - that are just as stunning as the craggy peaks and emerald green trees of B.C.

"When (my father) finally came and visited me, which was at least a year after I opened my gallery, he was like totally awestruck," Richards said, grinning. "When he went back, he modified a lot of his techniques, so I guess I had a very strong impact."