Bill Ritchie's art in Washington State
Us flag WA state flag
in the

James "Bud" Richardson Collection

Element II

Provenance: 1965. Print. Stone lithograph, wash drawing, 3 colors. Green, gray-green, black-green. Image 14 1/2 X 12 in. on 16 1/2 X 13 1/2 in. white Cover (sulphite) paper. No. 5/5 (?), signed lower right. See also the Lawrence Hard Collection.

About Bud Richardson: Always Bud will be the strongest early influence on me as regards my creative art. Certainly others, like Bob Biersner, Willard George and Ross Jones helped me with intellectual inspiration in my first four years of college, but Bud inspred a world view in me. He had come back to school for another college degree, having traveled and lived in Europe for several years. Globe-trotting was in his blood, as well as haute couture, wine and fine crafts - all things I had never known growing up on the farm in central Washington. We were house mates. With Connie Scott (later to be Connie Speth, head of the CWU art department) we were like the Three Musketeers, and one of my first planographic prints was "Picnic," with Bud, Connie and I on a breezy, warm day out on a country picnic. We went to Seattle several times and he introduced me to his sister, Marianne and Hank Pitzler. After we said goodbye to Ellensburg, he went to Turkey and set up a traveling show for me in several cities. He came to my rescue several times - notably when I was about to go to Japan and he knew, from experience, that I would never make it on the little money I had so he held a house sale to pull me through. My last visit with Bud was in 2013, and he looked great.

Artist's comment: "This is the second color from Element II, the black run only. Sometimes with printmaking you just want to see or print one of the colors--another beautiful thing about media art. These are so versatile; to me it's somehow like rock, tree, and water--the tree flexes, gives way to wind, and yet its roots--like water--can split and wear away stone. Does that make sense?"

(or, until verified, maybe Element I which says:) "At the time I was a graduate student my inventions in methods to draw lithographs that achieved for me the effects of natural patterns were mounting in number, plus my skill to print and hold the image on stone. I'd been practicing for five months and Now I was in my element with lithography."


Bud's name is listed as having arranged the sale of
an impression from the series for an auction to benefit
the Factory of Visual Art (FOVA)

Bill Ritchie print Little Spaceship Crash
Note: the actual print in that Bud got for the
Factory of Visual Art Auction is not available for
photo at this time, T/P 9 above is a reasonable facsimile .

Little Spaceship Crash

Provenance: 1977. Print. Intaglio, relief, stencil, litho. Colors uncertain at this writing but may have been ochre, red, blue, black, gray. Image 12 X 9 in on 15 X 11 3/4 in Van Gelder Zonen (natural, buff) paper. 2/11/77 II T/P No. 8. Signed lower right.

Bill Ritchie 's Comment about the Little Spaceship Crash: Spanning two years of development and about 75 impressions, Little Spaceship Crash was the seed for a larger work. These came out of the movie, Planet of the Apes. I like to tell the story about the path flown by the helicopter filming it, and then my entry into computers graphics and how I learned the X-Y-Z of IT. This print was test of methods I would need for a larger version, then the tests resulted in an edition that stood on its own.

Private collections:Evonne Agnello, Karl Beckley, Billie Jane Bryan, Zena Chew, Larry Dillon, Linda Farris Estate, Alfred Harrison, Kim & Carol Hoffman, Eric Hoffman, Ronna Hoffman, Ross Jones Estate, Keith Kirkpatrick, David Lonay, Dennis Evans & Nancy Mee, Walter Parsons, Maury Pepin Estate, Ed & Anne Praczukowski, Lynda Ritchie, Carol Fuller- Schwab, Lori Shepard, Keith Beckley & Presha  Sparling, Peggy Vanbianchi, and Carolyn Law & Andy Weisbecker

Institutions and corporate collections: Art Planning Consultants, New York, NY; Baker University, Baldwin, KS; Landau/Alexander Gallery, Los Angeles CA;Oregon Arts Commission; Bill Mally Collection, University of Washington IMS, Seattle, WA; Norton Building, Seattle, WA; Teller Training Institute, Seattle, WA; United Pacific Reliance Corporation,  CA; USIA Tokyo, Japan.

Exhibitions: Anne Hughes Gallery, Portland, OR; Davidson Galleries, Seattle (where it won an award), WA; DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Impressions Gallery, Boston, MA; Kiku Gallery, Seattle, WA;  Silvermine Guild of Arts, New Canaan, CT; US Information Agency, Tokyo Japan; Visual Arts Center, Anchorage, AK


See the Patron's List for more peoples' collections - click here

Email: ritchie@seanet.com