Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Rich spent most of his summer days tromping through the woods always headed to one of his favorite fishing holes. After high school he joined the Navy to see the world. It was while stationed in Virginia that Rich attended the Mid-Atlantic Wildfowl Festival and was just awestruck with the wonderful carvings that he saw. As someone with a love of nature and fishing in particular, Rich began carving in 1985 often focusing on nature and the beauty that he saw while pursuing some of his favorite pastimes. Rich’s interests were piqued on how he could go about creating such beauty out of wood. Ducks were Rich’s first interest and garnered much of his attention during his early carving days. Entering his carvings in the many competitions always kept him striving to better his art, to increase the creativity and the wow factor, always looking for that special pose that would catch the judge’s eye.
Fishing had always been a significant part of Rich’s life and continues to be to this day. His latest works center on recreating the beauty that Rich sees in the fish and of the days remembered pursuing them. Waterfowl and Fish have been the focus of most of Rich’s carvings but there has been an occasional flower, shore bird, or a puffin or two.
Rich often starts with a picture and creates a pattern and subsequent woodcarving with various degrees of detail. Often each scale is carved or burned into the wood to capture those intricate details. When painting, each scale is hand painted with several applications of media. He develops color with multiple coats of various paints, pastels and powders, using both an airbrush and artist brushes. Starting with an airbrushed base layer followed by pastels and powdered paint, he creates an accurate and long lasting piece of art.