Fred Reichman

Fred was a painter and sculptor and also practiced his own style of Zen.

He was also a connoisseur of Haiku poetry.  In fact one could say that his paintings are visual Haiku poems. They involve intimate observations of everyday objects, family members, his pet cat Issa and spontaneous encounters with wildlife.

Sometimes the subject of his visual poem was not directly in the painting at all, a ‘Startled deer’ who leaves a broken picket on a garden fence during the creatures getaway. He could describe the arrival of an entire season with the image of a single bird perched on a blade of new grass: ‘Spring’s Coming is a Meadow Lark’. Fred could describe himself by painting a tabletop covered with paint brushes and glass jars with his easel in the background.

Reichman worked in the unusual medium of Alkyd, an alcohol based resinous compound that dries very quickly.  He built up his imagery with countless layers of color overlay and frequently left a reveal of his process on one edge of the painting. The work is quiet and meditative and demands considerable interaction with the viewer before giving up its secrets. The reward ranges from simple delight to a profound sense of wellbeing. They are well worth the effort.

Fred Reichman was born in Bellingham Washington in 1925 and spent the majority of his life in San Francisco and Inverness California as well as Summers at his cabin near Taos New Mexico. He received his BA and MA from University of California Berkeley and taught painting there as well as the San Francisco Art Institute.

His work is in the collections of many prestigious museums including The National Gallery of American Art, Washington DC, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He exhibited throughout the United States as well as Europe.