In 1975, Richard and I moved to a pre-civil war building on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. It was over 4,000 square feet of live-work space on the third and fourth floors. We painted it white and most of our furniture was on castors. Richard's domain was the third floor where he set up his elaborate studio consisting of tables that he designed and made, glass palettes and a big table in the middle on which the actual painting was laid flat.
Richard in his studio in 1978.
Waverly, 1977
acrylic on canvas in 5 panels
6 feet 4 inches high x 6 feet 8 inches wide
Collection of Smith Kline Beckmann, Philadelphia
The inspiration for Richard's work came from a sense of place, for example the Arizona dessert or the view from our windows. To match this interior quality, he mixed what he called base colors. These in turn generated thousands of other colors, such as you see in Waverly. Richard creating a quantitative mix system for pigments that used exact measurements.
I am interested in threshold levels of minimal change. Colors that are mixed in extremely fine steps to that point of "just noticeable difference". Richard Cramer
A mixing table set up.
Richard hired assistants to mix the colors based on his formulas.
Dave Landry (against wall) and Steve Kraitchman
at work in the studio. Richard's diagrams
for color mixing are on the wall.
Jars containing base colors. We lived near Old City
in Philadelphia, and there were businesses selling
chinaware and glassware in the area. We had a ready supply of jars.
Richard wrote out this formula for his favorite color, Red 47A.
He gave it to Andy Hornberger who recently sent me this photo.
Richard's studio. It was very hot in the summer.
We had custom tinted shades made for the 10 foot windows.
The view from Richard's studio looking out on
Chestnut Street at sunset.
The colors and shapes were part of the inspiration
for his paintings.
Richard Cramer on the roof at 723 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia. The Strawbridge and Clothier department
store is in the background.
Carol at 723 Chestnut Street.
Richard and I had matching hats.
A Bientot!
