Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author
"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
There are 120,000 + species of flies in the world. Flies have many associations, some darker than others. One of the more positive associations is that of persistence, which seems apt in the context of this stippled piece. I started this drawing on November 1, 2025 and expect that it will take much of the... Continue Reading →
To Wander Where I Will, 2025, ink on paper, 24" x 18" Lately, I've become fascinated by fragmentary Greek masks such as the one above. I need to do more research on them, but on an emotional level, I truly love their mysterious, incomplete quality. This sensibility was the inspiration for my latest piece, a... Continue Reading →
I usually document my work with my iPhone as I progress. I thought I would share some production shots of “Otolith. I like to begin with a graphite line drawing, where the composition is worked out fully before inking. With this piece, I was most interested in the accuracy of carp skull and introducing movement... Continue Reading →
My final drawing of the year is "Gatekeeper". This is a companion piece to another drawing I did this year called "Extremophile." Sincere thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look at my art this year and to those that were able to support it with a sale, mention, share or "like." Richard... Continue Reading →
For the past few weeks I have been busy in the studio working on some new pieces. The pictures below are my most recent works and both are available in my Big Cartel webstore. Key Bearer, 2024, silverpoint, 12"x9" Key Bearer is a new silverpoint drawing executed on acid free hotpress illustration board. In this... Continue Reading →
The title of my new piece was taken from Mary Shelley's introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein. I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some terrible engine, show signs... Continue Reading →
Currently in the studio I am working on a large drawing called EXTREMOPHILE. According to Wikipedia an extremophile is an organism that is able to live in extreme environments with conditions approaching or stretching the limits of what known life can adapt to. By that definition, one might argue taking on a 22" x 30"... Continue Reading →
Many of you that follow my work will have seen the images I created earlier this year for the vinyl reissue of KoRN Untitled—KoRn's 8th studio album. In this post I will show you some of the production shots I took while I was working on this project. It's my practice to document my work... Continue Reading →
The Stranger Greets the Dawn, 2023, ink on artboard, 10" x 11.5" I finished this drawing on September 10. It started life as an endpaper illustration for a forthcoming book project. In the end we chose another image, so I expanded the this original drawing and rounded out the composition. It is very much in-line... Continue Reading →
The Other Earth, 2023, ink on paper, 14” x 18” Earlier this year I was honored to get this special commission from a long time collector and friend, which I can now show you in its entirety. The theme of the piece is that of father and son—exploring your imagination and sharing the journey with... Continue Reading →
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 