Radio Maine Episode 79: Rick Hamilton
9/4/2022
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Hello. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to, or watching, Radio Maine. Today, it's my pleasure to have Rick Hamilton with me, again. Rick, it's great to see you.
Rick Hamilton:
Thank you. Good to see you too.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Rick, I just love your pieces. If I had another house, I would just have a whole house full of Rick Hamilton pieces. Your work just makes me happy.
Rick Hamilton:
Oh, that's great to hear. Thank you. I think that's an excellent idea too, by the way.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Great! I'll have to work on that with my husband, Kevin, and we'll see what we could do, but let's start with talking about the piece that's right behind us.
Rick Hamilton:
This is one that I literally just finished maybe an hour or so ago. It's probably still wet with paint. I've been painting a lot of lobstermen lately. I've done that for a couple years, but recently I’ve started adding more of the actual lobsters into the paintings too.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I have noticed that and what's fun about this too, is I think people who live in Maine or have seen actual live lobsters know that lobsters are not red.
Rick Hamilton:
Correct.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Until they are cooked, of course. In this case, you actually have a live lobster. It's blue, but not everybody would know that that, that they are closer to a blueish kind of darkish blue shade.
Rick Hamilton:
Yeah, that's true. I have been called out on that actually. In the past, when I’ve painted the lobsters red, people will say, how can he hold them, how can he be holding a boiling lobster?
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So do you say, well, he's obviously at a lobster bake?
Rick Hamilton:
I say nothing!
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Got it! So you are open to others' own interpretations
Rick Hamilton:
Exactly, yes
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Well, I really enjoy this piece and I also can smell the paint. So that makes me realize how fresh it really is. It is right off the easel. Where is the cat?
Rick Hamilton:
Well, do you want me to tell you?
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I couldn’t find the last one when we met on Radio Maine previously. That's the thing. It literally bothered me! I would search and search when you mentioned there was a cat. I could not find it! Let me look for just a second here. You know what, I'm not gonna ask you to show me because I want people to actually go to the gallery or go online to find this painting and see if they can find it. But before you leave today, I'm gonna ask you to show me because otherwise it's gonna keep bothering me. Can you tell us about this motif that you use with the cat?
Rick Hamilton:
Yes. I think it started maybe around six years ago. I did a painting of a man playing guitar, and I imagined him in a port of Italy or Spain. There were some sailboats in the background and in the foreground were some bigger cats. The painting was called Serenading the Cats and this guy was playing guitar to these feral cats. Somehow from that, I developed this idea that I'd hide a little kitty in every painting.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And do you actually have cats yourself?
Rick Hamilton:
No, no cats. I don't mind them, but I'm slightly allergic to them so I couldn't have a cat.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So you are using these cats as a hypoallergenic means of bringing them into your life?
Rick Hamilton:
That is exactly what it is!
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Just purchase a Rick Hamilton painting and you will have a cat at your home, whether you'll be able to actually find the cat or not.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Rick, you are doing interesting things these days. One of which is onsite painting in pretty large format. Tell me about the most recent experience you had with this.
Rick Hamilton:
That was actually in the Portland Art Gallery. It was a painting that was six foot by ten foot, which is now the biggest painting I've ever done. And it really came about in such an organic way with Kevin Thomas and I talking about some ideas that we could throw out to shake things up a little bit. Kevin proposed the idea of sitting in the gallery with some of my paintings out and I could talk to clients on a Saturday afternoon or something like this. I thought this was a great idea but then I thought, if I'm gonna do that, maybe I can just paint a painting there. Luckily, he loved that idea.
Rick Hamilton:
This conversation started on a Monday. Later in the day he called me and said, “There's an opportunity for a big painting at the store, Aristelle, right around the corner from the gallery”. He asked if I would be interested in putting a big painting in there. I said, “I'd love to do that”. By the late afternoon of Monday he said, “How about this? Why don't you paint that big painting in the gallery?”. I said, “I love it!”. It happened so quickly and organically which was really special. Since the painting was so large, I had to build the canvas myself. On Tuesday he said, “How quickly could you have it ready?”. I thought maybe a week or so. Kevin said back, “Could you bring it to the gallery Thursday morning and you start?”. I said, “Sure!”. So I scrambled and found a carpenter buddy. We built it on Wednesday and drove it to the gallery Thursday morning. I started maybe half an hour after we got in there.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And how long did it take you to finish that piece?
Rick Hamilton:
I was in the gallery painting for four days. There was a little bit of sitting around and a little bit of talking with the clients that came in, but it was four days of painting.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
How did people respond? Most of the time when you walk into an art gallery you may be taking a look at things on the wall and wondering how it might look in your living room. But here you are, a real live artist doing a real live painting in the middle of all of this and really bringing art to life.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, it was slow to start because I think people would come into the gallery and come into the second room where I was painting, they would pause because they felt that they may be interrupting something. They weren't sure if they should come in even though there were signs encouraging them to engage. People were so cautious! So the first morning I wrote on the canvas itself, “Please talk to the artist”. People would see that and they'd giggle. That would make them come in a little bit and open up.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And do I understand that there were some children that were intrigued by the work you were doing?.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, there was. I had this plan when we started that I might have people write on the back of the canvas, maybe their name or where they're from, just to indicate that they were there and part of the process. I decided against that because I had this fear of the pencil poking through the canvas. But I think the first group of visitors was made up of two or three adults and two or three kids. They were just talking about the process and all I had done at this point was throw some colors on the canvas just to get a feel for how it was gonna operate. After we talked for maybe 15 minutes, one of the little girls said to her mom, “I really want to go home and paint now”. So I grabbed the brush and the jar of color yellow paint said, “Paint on this”. So she started painting on the canvas!
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Wow. This could be a future fellow artist that you have just initiated the career of. That's kind of a nice feeling, isn't it?
Rick Hamilton:
It was amazing. It feels cyclical as the reason why I painted for the very first time was because a 10 year old girl on Munjoy hill was painting outside our apartment. I asked her what she was doing. And she said, “I'm just painting. Do you wanna paint with me?”. And so I painted! That's what brought on the love of painting for me.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
It is interesting how the world brings things back around.
Rick Hamilton:
It really does.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Rick, I know a lot of the pieces that you've painted are focused on coastal Mediterranean scenes. I've also seen that you have evolved your work more recently to include scenes that are closer to home. Is this inspired by the fact that we live in Maine. Was there something else that kind of kicks this off for you?
Rick Hamilton:
I love Maine and I love all the scenes in Maine. I get to see the ocean every day and I've always wanted to paint scenes of Maine. I just had this, I don't know about stubbornness but perhaps you could describe it that way, where I just have to feel that the time is right for me. I just can't force it to happen. And this past couple years, I guess the time was just right for me to start doing it.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Was this in any way related to having to kinda hunker down as a result of the pandemic? Or was it just something that you can't even describe that caused you to move in that direction?
Rick Hamilton:
I think it's more the latter, something I really can't describe. I don't think that the pandemic had a lot of influence on my art . If it had any influence, I think it made it a little brighter and happier.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So almost as a response to the pandemic, you kind of went in the other direction?
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, I believe I did.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Well, that's very interesting. So when you're thinking about a piece, let's take the one behind us as an example. What is this one called?
Rick Hamilton:
This one is called “Catch Me If You Can”.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Ah, yes that makes sense! Tell me about what got you to the place where you felt open for the influence of the Maine scene. What was the transition into painting these scenes with multiple lobstermen like?
Rick Hamilton:
The lobstermen series all started with the idea of these orange overalls. That color alone just really drew me into the idea of painting the lobstermen. And, many people don’t know, but I was a lobsterman for a short time. I don't know if that had a lot of effect or inspiration on me, but maybe it did. I only lasted about two weeks. That is not my thing.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
No, why not?
Rick Hamilton:
It's way too hard of a job. It's hard work! I'm not sure what started the inspiration for the lobsterman, but I really just love painting the orange and it gives me a really good excuse to do that.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Yes, I can see that. So how did you get into being a lobsterman and then how did you decide that it wasn’t for you?
Rick Hamilton:
Well, I've had a ton of different careers before I was an artist. That was just one of the many things that I tried doing.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And apparently all of them are easier than being a lobsterman?
Rick Hamilton:
That was one of the toughest for sure.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I'm always impressed with where we live because many people only pull traps in the summertime, but there are a fair number of people who are pulling traps here in Maine as long and late into the season as they possibly can. As soon as the temperature lifts a little bit, they're back out there again! They're out there every morning and you really are just exposed to all the elements. So I can understand your sentiment, it is a lot of very hard work. It is interesting that you are shining a light on these people that do this very hard work, and probably wouldn't be able to have the time in their lives to paint themselves.
Rick Hamilton:
True, yes. There's something about people that really work hard and are dedicated to something like that. This idea that these workers are doing this in the winter seems so intense to me, but every day they're out there doing it. I paint a lot of lobstermen and dancers because I'm really impressed with the work ethic that both have. I came to this realization when I attended a drawing session where a dancer came in and did poses and those in attendance would draw her. I think the final pose she did was 20 minutes of just one position and I was just blown away. And the more I looked into it, I realized that these dancers worked so hard at their art and their craft and it really impressed me. And that translated into me doing a series on dancers too.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
That's very interesting. What is it about this work ethic that somehow appeals to you?
Rick Hamilton:
I don't know. Sometimes I say I'm a lazy person, but in actuality I've done careers that have been really hard work and I've succeeded at them so I do have a really good work ethic. Even though painting is not a physically tough job for me, I'm in the studio for a long, long time. I bring that work ethic into the studio.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Well, even what you're describing about the process of getting yourself prepared to do that live painting in Portland Art Gallery and your willingness to kind of turn on a dime is part of that work ethic. Taking the time to put your work out there, figure out a way to do it, work with your carpenter friend, create what you need to in order to make the logistics work speaks to that, that willingness to put yourself out there and the understanding that being an artist requires quite a bit of effort.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, true. I think maybe my willingness to do that could stem from the work history that I've had. I didn't come into art in a traditional way. I never went to art school or had any training so maybe that work ethic speaks to my willingness to say yes and try new things.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Exactly. Since you've had to teach yourself and be flexible along the way and have all these various different jobs, you're probably continually putting yourself in a space of learning and giving yourself the time to figure things out. I think a lot of people want to be really good at something right away and then when they aren't it is easy to get discouraged. I think it applies to myself as well! What you're describing is sort of this beginner's mind that is often spoken about, but acknowledging the key ingredient which is persistence.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, that is so true.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Rick, as you are working on something like the piece behind me, is there a waiting period as the paint dries in order to put the next layer on? Tell me a little bit about your process.
Rick Hamilton:
Yeah, there is but I'm very impatient, especially when I paint. If I put down a layer of orange and I need it to dry quicker, I'll hit it with a heat gun because I don't even want to wait long enough for the paint to dry naturally. If I lay down a red and I just say, mm, that's just not the right red for this painting, again, I'll hit it with a heat gun and then go over it with whatever I think it would be better.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Is that dangerous? I mean, isn't there the possibility you're putting heat on a flammable material like canvas?
Rick Hamilton:
Well, yes. There have been times where I've held the heat gun on for a little too long, and I see the smoke coming from the back of a canvas. That's pretty much the end of that canvas.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Oh my goodness.
Rick Hamilton:
Sometimes, I don't know if you can see on this particular one, if I hold the heat gun a little bit too long, the paint will start to bubble. I really love that effect, especially after I sand over it, because whatever's underneath that bubbling, once I sand, will be visible. So there could be specs of whatever is underneath.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
That's a fascinating observation that you are getting yourself so close to the edge of destruction and somehow yielding things that are unexpectedly wonderful.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes!
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
There's another piece that you brought in today which is a Maine piece that includes written words. It says “Maine, we love you”. This very much is about buildings, as opposed to this piece that we're looking at behind us, which is about people. Do paint a lot of buildings in the works that you do?
Rick Hamilton:
I'm getting more comfortable with doing buildings. I’m not a perfectionist in the sense that I need the buildings to look like they would in real life, but I just have to be comfortable with it enough to say this is good and I can keep going with this.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So you're starting to put buildings in that you actually like and are willing to have out there in the world, correct?
Rick Hamilton:
Yes.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
What about this large piece that was done for Aristelle? What was the subject matter of that?
Rick Hamilton:
That was one of the lines of the dancers. There was a smaller piece that is also at the gallery that Ashley, the owner of Aristelle, saw and loved. She proposed that piece being the reference for the bigger painting. While I was in the gallery painting, it started as five women in like retro style bathing suits, but then it morphed into chorus line dancers with their arms around each other and each was kicking up leg.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Does that happen for you on a regular basis where you start with one idea and it kind of seems to move forward in a different direction over time?
Rick Hamilton:
All the time, yes. Since Ashley saw the original painting, I tried to stick to that format, but if I was in my studio that could have turned out to be lobstermen or buildings or a cow. There's no telling if each piece does move. Very rarely I will sketch out a painting and have that be the finished product. It'll just move. I paint over things and make changes as I go.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I understand that you also do commissions for people. I know the commissions can be a little tricky because you're trying to take what's in somebody else's mind and translate it for them onto the canvas, but in a way that also feels good to you. So tell me about some of the successes that you've had.
Rick Hamilton:
I look at commissions almost as a collaboration. I'll take input from the client and when I’m finished with the painting I will send the picture to them. Oftentimes they might say, well, could it be more blue or less blue or whatever they feel. I'm very open to making changes because I really believe that the more time I spend on a canvas and the more changes I make to it, the better it will be. As long as it is within reason and within my comfortability, I'm very open to changes.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
What would be an example of something that you're not comfortable with?
Rick Hamilton:
Once, someone wanted me to do a painting of a person that was really large. As you can see, the people are pretty lanky and I don't think there's anything realistic about how their bodies are structured. Inside the composition of my paintings, it works but this person wanted a painting of someone that's really large. I tried it a little bit, but I couldn’t do it in a way that felt natural to me.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Yes, I can see how that would be true. It would make sense that if you are working in a certain style that you normally work in, putting a completely different shape into the middle of a piece that you're doing probably would not feel great.
Rick Hamilton:
That was exactly it.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Well, what about people who ask to do things like a combination of buildings and figures? One of the pieces you brought in focuses on figures and the other buildings. I've seen a few of your pieces that have a little bit of both, but they typically are more like one or the other. Have you had successes with those?
Rick Hamilton:
That's sort of a new thing for me. Usually the figures are front and center, just popping out of the painting recently. I've been trying to do some things where they exist in a landscape or some sort of scene. That is definitely a new thing that I'm working on.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And what are the challenges associated with doing that?
Rick Hamilton:
Just doing something that I'm not so comfortable with doing. This scene right here with the lobstermen is very comfortable to me and I can do it all day. I love to do it. Making the figures smaller and putting them in a scene is a little bit new and that makes it a little uncomfortable for me.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And why is that? Is it because the perspective is different, the style is different? What is it that makes it uncomfortable?
Rick Hamilton:
Mostly it is just because it is a new thing for me. I am troubleshooting as I go. I have to get it just right, or just right for me. It takes some time to get used to painting a smaller painting and understanding how that impacts the composition.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
That is so interesting because it's not that you're against learning how to do new things. You're more than happy to learn how to do new things, but it doesn't mean that you love it right away. It means you're willing to go through the discomfort of trial and error.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes. When I do something new in painting, it feels like a rollercoaster. It'll start off thinking, “Oh my goodness, this is gonna be a great painting. This might be the best painting I've ever done”. And then something won't go quite right in the painting. Then I go down the road of, “This is horrible. What are you doing, Rick? This isn't what you paint. You can't be doing this”. Finally, something will shift and then it'll go back to, “Wow, Rick, this is really good! This is gonna be great”. It can continue to go up and down just like that. If the painting lands where I think it will, it's just kind of a place where I think, “Okay, you're good on this one. Let's go to the next one”.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I really love hearing that because I do think that there are some people who are just very even keeled all the time. And then there are some people that definitely go from one extreme to the next and it can be very disconcerting to be one of those people who don’t experience that. I happen to be one of those people who cycles through the roller coaster more in my creative side rather than my professional medical side. Thank goodness for my patients. But I think that it's nice to hear that it's not always possible to maintain balance and also be creative. It takes a certain level of confidence to be comfortable with sometimes not feeling great, sometimes feeling really great. So when you are working with people that you're doing a commission with how does that usually come about?
Rick Hamilton:
Sometimes it is based on size. They may need something to fit over a mantle but it’s usually not a certain subject like their dog or a portrait. It's more of an idea like, “Ooh, I love the lobsterman. Could you do it with more pink in it?”. And then sometimes size also factors into it. Usually the direction is usually based more on color than subject.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And given that many artists do not like commissions, why do you think that you're so willing to try to make these things work?
Rick Hamilton:
Well, I think because I've said many times that one of the main reasons I make art is to connect with people and the connections that have been made through art are just mind boggling to me. It's just amazing. If I do a commission that promotes a conversation about art, that's why I do it. I love it.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Which is also great because, again, I'm not saying that one sort of artist is better than another sort of artist, but I do know that some artists are also fairly solitary. That it is actually very uncomfortable for them to enter into interactactions with the public. But I know that you happen to be quite comfortable with people going to your studio, visiting and seeing your creative process. The kind of spectrum of people who engage in creative work has been very interesting to note as I've had conversations like this one. For you, it almost sounds like bringing the art into it is just kind of another part of the conversation.
Rick Hamilton:
That's right. It's just maybe a spark to a conversation or a beginning.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Do you have people who will send you photos after they've taken one of your pieces and put it in their home?
Rick Hamilton:
Yes,I love to see those photos. I do. I recently got a photo of a painting that was sold a few years ago and the client just had a baby and this little baby would just stare at my painting.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So again, you're creating conversations that span a wide range of audiences.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes! I think this baby was around two or three months old.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Which is just wonderful because you're creating connections with little human beings that are preverbal even!
Rick Hamilton:
That's right.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
It makes sense as I'm thinking about even some of the imagery that I have in my mind from when I was growing up. Even before I had words to put around things, I can remember things that were in the rooms nearby. Do you ever use that type of imagery when you are working? Elements that are not necessarily subjects right in front of you, like a scene from Portland, but things that you have experienced previously in your life?
Rick Hamilton:
I don't think consciously I do that, but I think that there's no way that my life experiences can't come into my work. I don't make a conscious effort to bring those experiences I had into the work but they have to be there.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Like the cats.
Rick Hamilton:
Yes, like the cats!
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
So tell me what you're excited about in the upcoming year?
Rick Hamilton:
Well, I'm just excited that I'm part of the Portland Art Gallery. I love to work with them and we have a great back and forth relationship. I want to try some new things. I'm starting to put some more abstract elements into my art. I'd like to make some purely abstract pieces. I have a little bit of trouble with that because I get so attached to what is the story behind the painting that with the abstract art, I feel like I have to let that go, but I'm excited to try some just pure abstract pieces.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
And what will those be related to? I’m reminded of other artists when they do their abstract pieces, think about landscapes for example, or seascapes.
Rick Hamilton:
I’m hoping to take these lobstermen and make them use these colors and shapes in an abstract piece.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Oh, yes. I see what you're saying.
Rick Hamilton:
It’s still something I’m working on thinking through. Early stages.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
Well, that'll give us something to talk about the next time you come back to be on the show! Rick, I have to admit, I still cannot find the cat. Right. But I will give those at home the opportunity to do that on their own with this piece titled “Catch Me If You Can”, and any of your other pieces. I really enjoyed our conversation today. And, again, I'm looking forward to having my own little Rick Hamilton house filled with the work because, you’re right, the story is so transportational. Every time you walk by a piece that you've created, the viewer gets to put themselves with the lobstermen or on the coast of France or one of these other places. It's a really wonderful place to exist in.
Rick Hamilton:
Thank you, Lisa.
Dr. Lisa Belisle:
I've been speaking with artist Rick Hamilton and I encourage you to go to the Portland Art Gallery to see his work or go online. Meet him at one of the monthly First Thursday Openings or maybe he will even give you a studio tour. See his work at Artistelle in Portland. Many different options! Regardless of how you connect with Rick Hamilton, he's really a wonderful human being. I'm Dr. Lisa Belisle, and this is Radio Maine. Thanks for coming in today, Rick.
Rick Hamilton:
Thank you!
Learn more about this artist:
Radio Maine podcast interview #18
Radio Maine podcast interview #79