Location: United States
Randy Sprout began his art career in 1964 at the University of Iowa, printmaking and studying with Mauricio Lasansky and Dr. John Schultz. His works were mostly about images of his family, as icons that would hold up to artist scrutiny for decades to come. Army service in Korea interrupted his art for two years, after which he studied with Robert Heinecken, Jan Stussy, Ray Brown, Sam Amato, Richard Diebenkorn and Stanton MacDonald-Wright, in the UCLA Graduate School of Fine Arts. It was there he began to draw back into the photographic plates and learned how to work and manipulate the images from within the media, rather than relying on the camera. He had many shows during that time, including a One Man show at the Santa Barbara Art Museum. He also worked during that time for the LACMA museum, with Ben Johnson, and got to restore many priceless prints for Norman Simon.
Working closely with Jan Stussy and Stanton McDonald-Wright, he began painting and his drawings began to get larger and better. In 1973, he was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to restore some Goya steel-faced etchings at the Prado, in Lisbon. Then Ruth Weisberg of the USC Department of Art reached out to him, and he worked there for 2 years. After that, he taught teaching and printmaking for 4 years at the UCLA Art Extension then taught painting, printmaking and drawing at Pierce College. He coauthored the book “Innovative Printmaking” 1977 Crown Publishers, New York.
In 1977, Randy got his real estate license, opened Century 21 Hollywood Inc., and focused on running the business and making it a successful franchise. He still doodled with pen and inks, especially at the beach or on vacations. But it was not until 2008, when he saw the Gold Medal show of Plein Artists from the California Art Club in Pasadena that his passion for this medium began. His first paintings in this medium were in Barcelona, on the streets, setting and drawing the waiters and workers in the wonderful fall light striking down between those old buildings so close together.
His work can be found in the following Collections: Archives Ohlone College, Fremont, California Grunwald Graphic Art Center, U.C.L.A. Photographic Collection, School of Fine Art, Ohio State University, Photographic Collection, Oakland Museum of Fine Art, California. 44 U.S. Embassies around the world, Photographic Collection, U.C .L A
Fall River Art Association, Mass. Photographic Collection, School of Fine Art, University of lowa. Print Collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
All images are owned, the property of and copyright of Randy Sprout. All The Materials Contained May Not Be Reproduced, Copied, Edited, Published, Transmitted Or Downloaded in Any Way. All Rights Reserved. Copying, altering, displaying or redistribution of any of these images without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited.
30X30 inch Acrylic on Canvas: This just won 2nd Place in the National ACM Magazine Exhibition! I grew up on this lake and this dock and the kid on the left is kind of my alter ego. All my old friends on facebook have a found rememberance of this dock, the life gaurds, fishing, and near downings they had here as kids in the 1950’s. In person it is a very large complex painting with lots of compositional “stuff” going on.
16X20 Acrylic on Canvas: Painted with my wonderful daughter Laurel from high on a cliff behind the Laguna Beach, California, USA Montage Spa over looking this beautiful bay. I decided to stop here for awhile instead of putting in people or birds.
20X20 Acrylic on Canvas:I wanted this to be a combination of Albrect Durer’s clod of earth and Vasarely’s fingerprint. This little creek runs just a block North of my house in Griffith Park and is feed year round by a fresh water spring. The Indians used to camp here and from time to time after a rain we will find arrowheads here. I finally got so frustrated that I took the canvas up to the creek to finish it, the whole thing became a study in abstractions rather than the way I thought it would go. I have way too many hours into such a small canvas, with just a lot of squinting and backing up to finish.
9X12 Acrylic Sketch on Canvas: This is my very favorite beach down the steep hill at the end of Pearl St and it is a wonder tight comunity of homes and people that share this really great site.
About 20 minutes at the water’s edge and we were kicked off the beach my the incoming tide.
I learned I have to paint fast and small if I’m going to stand up close. LOL!
Eaton Canyon Falls: 8.5X11 inch Pen & Ink Study hit with Pastels on #140 Strathmore water color paper: This wonderful falls is just North of Pasadena in the hills at the end of Altadena Dr. and a favorite of local families for a Sunday picnic. It’s a hard 2.5 mile hike over large boulders and 8 stream crossings, so bring lunch, sunbock, and an old pair of tennis shoes that can get wet.
8.5X11 Pen & Ink study hit with Acrylic Washes on #140 Strathmore Paper: I went to visit my friend John in Boyle Heights at the Mariachi Plaza around 10:00 AM and he didn’t get there until 3:00 PM so I was lucky I had my paint kit. Thousands of wires in the sky there in East LA and a strange look back on the city.
8.5X11 Pen & Ink study with soft pastels on #140 Strathmore water color paper. The little girl in the middle had fallen down behind these falls and the entire family was responding to help her.This is the first work completed and colored from my recent road trip up through Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Door County. Many more sketches to work out for a big painting to come for the California Art Club juried show.
9X12 Acrylic on Strathmore watercolor paper: I just got back from Pasadena and this beautiful bridge, I have been looking up from the shade into the sky until my neck hurts. I kind of screwed up on the very difficult perspective under the bridge, but I think the tonal values save it?
11X8.5 Pen & Ink with Pastels on #140 Strathmore Water Color Paper: I have been back 3 times to this image in the last 2 months and only today found the right pastels for this limited palette. — at the California Yacht Club.
11X8.5 Pen & Ink study hit with Pastels on #140 Strathmore water color paper:
This valley is where two of my dear friends are getting married this summer. It’s a small church built on top of that rock that had it’s beginnings around the year 300 AD (yes, almost 1,700 years old.) It was partially destroyed by the earthquake back in the late 70’s and later rebuilt. No one has been allowed to marry in that church in over half a century. One of the last people to marry there was my friend’s great grandfather. This church is in what is known as La Valle del Sele (Sele’s Valley) in the Irpinia Region, in Campania. The town seen on the far left is Materdomini.
8.5X11 Acrylic on #140 Strathmore Water Color Paper: This was a quick study I did while drinking wine at the dock. The sun had set so the water was turning fast to silver and the colors were fading out. No time for my normal ink work, I just waded right in. I have had this around since last October when I was in Portofino, but I didn’t get the silver to work until this PM.
11X14 Acrylic on Canvas: My 1st commission in 2012, the owner wanted the boat to be the subject so I had him looking off toward the shore.
?11X14 Ink & Acrylic on Canvas: This tree is on the Adamson Home grounds just North of Malibu Pier and now a wonderful park to visit and paint in.
18X24 Acrylic on Canvas: Just South of Wallingford Iowa I came upon these kids flying their kites as the sun set. I got permission from their Mom to work up some pictures and drawings, then combined 5 photos into one drawing and sent that to her. I am still working on this one, but I think it’s now headed the right direction. Too bad they didn’t have a dog, maybe I’ll have to give them one.
8.4 X 11 Pen & Ink Long Sketch with Soft Pastels on #140 Strathmore Water Color Paper: These guys were all over us for a ride as soon as we stepped off the bus.
18X24 Acrylic on Canvas: I have been painting on this one since October and I am still trying to get the rocks and kelp under the surface of the water to look submerged and wet. Mostly painted from the pen & ink sketch I did from the deck of my boat the Fortuna while anchored in the cove
8.5X10 Pen & Ink with pastels on 140 Strathmore: This was my second attempt to capture these crystal clear waters in the fall near 4th of July Harbor on Catalina Island. The pen & ink only took me about an hour but the pastels took 2 days to get close. Not a bad place to spend 2 days on my boat the Fortuna
18X24 Acrylic on canvas. I had done a small pen & ink study of this last year and wanted to get it into a larger format. This little grove on the backside of the island has withstood many fierce storms yet they all seem to hold together as a happy family.
9X12 Acrylic Sketch inspired by photo taken by Andrzej Wojciech Goszcz through his windshield.
“Boys on The Dock”
“ Key Hole Arch En plein air”
“Ferndale Creek”
“Pearl Beach Arch Laguna”
“Eaton Canyon Falls”
“1st Street Train Station LA”
“Willow River Falls ”
“Arroyo Seco Bridge”
“Hiolani II ”
“Chiesa San Vito In The Snow”
“Portofino Anchorage”
“Gail Anne at Malibu Pier”
“Adamson Home Tree”
“Farm Kids and Kites”
“Cairo Donkey Rider”
“4th of July Cove”
“Diving Off Of Lions Head”
“Eucalyotus Grove Catalina”
“2nd Street Bridge in Rain”
