Radebaugh recognizes nature's beauty not in its literal forms, but in the abstract shapes comprising all that he sees. These organic pieces and patterns are brought into focus in his “Fragments” paintings. After studying drawing, photography and jewelry design in college, the Boston-born artist (now living in New Mexico) spent ten years designing sculptural art furniture before returning to painting full-time in 1988. In 2004, his art career was celebrated with a twenty-year retrospective in Albuquerque, and he spent the next two and a half years painting thirty-six canvasses for a University of New Mexico Art Museum exhibit in 2007.
I lost myself so completely on one occasion that when I rose slowly after an hour and a half on a sketch, two deer bolted from ten feet behind me, apparently looking over my shoulder.
My sketches are inspired by abstract forms in the natural world. These forms present themselves, “announcing” themselves to me as if they were asking me to sketch them. To do this, I have to look at natural lines, shapes and forms. Then I recognize that everything is connected.
I sketch with a soft pencil, a chisel drawing pencil, on drawing papers. I sketch outside and add color using maybe a rotten stick, moss or dirt.
My paintings are composites of drawings. Most of my time is spent with the paint. I sketch to create my paintings. Years ago I sketched daily; now I sketch when I want more material for paintings. Maybe every three months, I'll stop painting and sketch for a week or two. I take field trips then and spend all day for days at a time drawing.
When sketching, I am completely immersed. I feel honored to be in nature, to give myself up to the process. The eye and hand are totally on their own. I don't think while drawing; I look and make the line. Drawing is a form of meditation, one that can last for more than an hour. I lost myself so completely on one occasion that when I rose slowly after an hour and a half on a sketch, two deer bolted from ten feet behind me, apparently looking over my shoulder.
My paintings are composites of drawings and, therefore, necessary to my work. For me the drawing is the crucial, exacting document. It is a portrait. My paintings are composed of these portraits. I see the compositions as a dialogue among the portraits. Creative license comes in the assembly of drawings. The painting is the free-for-all.
Taylor Fragment 1
Oil/earth pigments/acrylic/paper/canvas (finished painting) 32" × 24" (81cm × 61cm)
Collection of the artist
Alberta Fragment 12
Pigment/acrylic/paper/canvas (finished painting) 32" × 24" (81cm × 61cm)
Collection of the artist
Oro Fragments I, II
Oil/acrylic/canvas (finished diptych) 46" × 44" (117cm × 112cm)
Collection of the artist