RICK LACEY is an instructor at the Lyme Academy of the Arts. He was graduated from the Academy with a BFA in painting and was awarded the John Stobart Fellowship.

 

Rick spends a lot of time drawing from life. He considers himself to be an artist in the American folk tradition. His work is primarily figurative and strives to create images that convey a feeling of early American New England that connect the viewer to a rich heritage and independent spirit that still resonates today.

 

Early-American box camera portraiture also influences Rick’s work. To suggest the intimate connection between figure and the space containing it, Rick crafts unique frames from found objects. The aged materials—wood, metal, plaster, nails, leather—contribute to the overall narrative, to the unique character and inner life his portraits reveal. 

 

One of just fifty finalists for the American Portraiture Today Competition, Rick will have work on view at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian from November, 2019 through August, 2020.