Featured Artist Raymond L. Haywood

Artist Raymond L. Haywood offers a selection of vibrant and highly textural acrylic paintings. See more of his dynamic portfolio by visiting his website.

 

 

My name is Raymond L. Haywood, and I’m a professional abstract expressionist painter working in acrylic and gouache on wood cradles and watercolor paper. I am a journeyman finish carpenter and now teach construction technology at Freedom High School in Oakley, California.

 

 

I began my artistic explorations in response to my stepfather Robert June Posey, who was an auto mechanic. His passion for working on cars inspired my curiosity. That, combined with my experiments in rebuilding broken bicycles, playing with microscopes and building models and paint by number sets, led me to explore painting.

 

 

I graduated from the University of California at San Diego with a BFA in painting. I was inspired by the sea, the Southern California lifestyle and the unique quality of light in San Diego. When I graduated, I had a rudimentary portfolio and set about establishing a new studio in Richmond, California.

 

 

Working out of a tiny garage space and backyard area, I built canvas stretcher bars and created my own grounds for acrylic painting. My style was a mix of graphic art and illustration. Working with traditional paintbrushes would ultimately lead me to take silkscreen printing classes.

 

 

In 1990, I began taking classes at The San Francisco Art Institute. I found that printing processes allowed for richer compositions and vibrant layers of color. Painting with color sparked my investigations into developing a gestural style of mark-making.

 

 

I took up the profession of carpentry—it is the perfect profession for me as it engages my creativity and combines it with sculpture. I found that painting and carpentry are mediums that allow my unique voice to flourish.

 

 

I earned an MFA in painting from San Francisco State University in 2003. I am active in the San Francisco Bay area arts community and am a seminal member of The Art of the African Diaspora, founded in 1996.

 

 

In 2014, I opened a studio space at the American Steel Studios in West Oakland, creating abstract expressionist landscapes and seascapes on wood panels and watercolor paper. In 2011 and 2012 I was teaching theater arts at Chabot Las Positas College in Hayward and began building my own wooden cradles to paint on. This began my interest and fascination with distressed wood surfaces layered in vibrant colors.

 

 

The next couple of years were a dynamic time for me while I exhibited with The Red Umbrellas Art Group in San Francisco at various locations. As my style of abstraction developed, I began painting on small watercolor paper whenever I was traveling. This led to creating a stylized cowrie shell avatar that is a distinctive image in my work.

 

Artist Raymond L. Haywood invites you to follow him on Instagram.

 

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