Robert Burridge, a full-time dedicated contemporary painter, teaches the Loosen Up with Aquamedia Painting course at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, and is the inspirational workshop instructor for many California art organizations, including the Palm Springs Artists’ Council, the San Diego Art Association, and the Mendocino Art Center. Recently he conducted his Loosen Up workshop for Art Calendar Magazine aboard an Alaskan cruise ship and at the corporate offices of Daniel Smith Artists’ Materials in Seattle, Washington.

He is a sought-after lecturer and demonstrator at the Art Methods & Materials convention in Pasadena, sponsored by American Artist Magazine, Tools of the Trade in San Francisco and Pearl Paint’s The Great American Art Event in New York.

Burridge was featured as one of the emerging artist in Los Angeles Art Expo, and recently acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as one of the top ten emerging artists in California. His 1997 serigraphs have won gold medal awards in international printing competitions and his first giclée print, the popular Cuban & Friends, has appeared in recent issues of Arts & Antiques, Cigar Aficionado, Smoke Magazine, and the Robb Report. His latest serigraph painting, The Afternoon Recital was selected to be included in the 1998 Grammy Awards Auction honoring Luciano Pavarotti.

Burridge’s paintings are created in multiple layers of archival quality paints on textural and brush-worked surfaces, and then permanently sealed under a clear glass finish. His final glaze is an acrylic polymer varnish with ultraviolet filters and light stabilizers for protection from UV damage and humidity. This unique finish allows the original art to be framed without the necessity for protective glass. His paints are also unique: his acrylics are professional grade, conservation quality, French-made watercolor pigments suspended in a copolymer resin. This combination of watercolor and acrylic paints, whether on paper or canvas, results in a vibrant, thick painting medium. The same company who, since 1887, has continued to hand-mix the purest first-press oil colors for Matisse, Cézanne, Gauguin and Monet makes his oil paints in Paris.

His style explores and interprets real life in his own passionate, painterly style. The work has been praised as happy, intriguing, and powerful. Art critics describe Burridge’s work as vibrant, beautiful and masterfully done. His use of rich, bold color and adventurous texture, while complex, is uplifting. His favorite subjects feature the good life, and includes tropical vistas, coastal landscapes, impressionistic still lifes, and luscious fruits & vegetables. An art critic recently commented, This man makes vegetables exciting! He is a very fine painter with a strong artistic voice.