Richard Berns, Mt. Pleasant
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Born in 1962, Richard Berns currently resides in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Berns graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1989 with a Bachelor of Art degree double majoring in painting and intaglio printmaking under the instruction of professors Dennis Bayuzick and Douglas DeVinny. Since the late 1980s, he has created an extensive portfolio of paintings, drawings, intaglio prints, and digital photographs.
Berns has been accepted into approximately 20 local and national juried exhibitions. His work is in public and private collections nationwide. The majority of his work features dramatic interpretations of architecture, isolated solitary figures, and wildlife under heavily contrasted, subdued light and shadow patterns. He emphasizes the dramatic, theatrical effects of light sources and the interaction of light and dark on the subject matter. Currently, Berns is placing most of his emphasis on paintings and intaglio prints that focus on the human figure, including a few images of his work as a photographer.
Artist Statement
The instruction I received in college has had a direct correlation to my artistic style with a great deal of emphasis placed on chiaroscuro and the interaction of light and dark with strong light sources. Masters of the Renaissance were often studied as examples by my instructors because of the emphasis that light placed on the anatomy, objects, and perspective. The dramatic and theatrical results of strong light and shadows have assisted me in creating dramatic compositions that are very suitable and compatible with intaglio printmaking as well as painting and photography.
Emotions and isolated solitary figures have made a great impact on my work. I believe in embracing those moments and figures and allowing them to become the basis of my creative process. Each artwork is personal to me and serves as a moment recorded in time of a family member or a memory from an event or place in my life. My goal is to create thought-provoking images that make people feel deeply when they see my work. I draw my inspiration from everyday life experiences that surround me. I often begin a piece of art by documenting a subject or experience with my camera and work from those photographic images.
I tend to place emphasis on my subject’s eyes and face. The eyes and facial expressions of my subjects tend to be the focal point of all of my art regardless of the medium.
Richard Berns, Mt. Pleasant
2024-25 RAM Artist Fellowship Award Recipient
Photography: Camela Langendorf, Varitay Studios
Born in 1962, Richard Berns currently resides in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Berns graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1989 with a Bachelor of Art degree double majoring in painting and intaglio printmaking under the instruction of professors Dennis Bayuzick and Douglas DeVinny. Since the late 1980s, he has created an extensive portfolio of paintings, drawings, intaglio prints, and digital photographs.
Berns has been accepted into approximately 20 local and national juried exhibitions. His work is in public and private collections nationwide. The majority of his work features dramatic interpretations of architecture, isolated solitary figures, and wildlife under heavily contrasted, subdued light and shadow patterns. He emphasizes the dramatic, theatrical effects of light sources and the interaction of light and dark on the subject matter. Currently, Berns is placing most of his emphasis on paintings and intaglio prints that focus on the human figure, including a few images of his work as a photographer.
Artist Statement
The instruction I received in college has had a direct correlation to my artistic style with a great deal of emphasis placed on chiaroscuro and the interaction of light and dark with strong light sources. Masters of the Renaissance were often studied as examples by my instructors because of the emphasis that light placed on the anatomy, objects, and perspective. The dramatic and theatrical results of strong light and shadows have assisted me in creating dramatic compositions that are very suitable & compatible with intaglio printmaking as well as painting and photography.
Emotions and isolated solitary figures have made a great impact on my work. I believe in embracing those moments and figures and allowing them to become the basis of my creative process. Each artwork is personal to me and serves as a moment recorded in time of a family member or a memory from an event or place in my life. My goal is to create thought-provoking images that make people feel deeply when they see my work. I draw my inspiration from everyday life experiences that surround me. I often begin a piece of art by documenting a subject or experience with my camera and work from those photographic images.
I tend to place emphasis on my subject’s eyes and face. The eyes and facial expressions of my subjects tend to be the focal point of all of my art regardless of the medium.
Interview with the Artist, January 2025
Please share the basics of your art career thus far. Education, years working, etc. How long have you been a part of the Racine/Kenosha community?
I’ve been a resident of Racine all my life. I graduated from University of Wisconsin–Parkside in 1989 with a BA in Art with an emphasis in Painting under Professor Dennis Bayuzick and in Printmaking under Professor Douglas DeVinny.
While attending UW–Parkside from 1981 to 1989 I spent many hours studying the realism of the Renaissance masters and I apply the same styles and techniques to my own artwork. I try to heighten the dramatic light sources through contrast and color in the same manner used in Baroque art. I place the most emphasis on the subjects’ expressions and I embellish the theatrical and dramatic elements of the composition through light and dark interaction.
I have been accepted into approximately 20 Invitational and Exhibition Shows in the Racine area since the early 1990’s.
While I’ve never worked full time in an art-related field, I have worked in manufacturing where creativity, problem solving and analytical skills have been very useful. I spent over 20 years as the co-owner of a company in Mount Pleasant, WI, designing magnetic proximity sensors for Original Equipment Manufacturers as a Design Engineer.
Would you please describe your work–what materials you use, what subject matters you explore?
I work in most mediums with the exception of sculpture. I cut my own mats and miter and finish my own frames, preferably oak. I regularly produce artwork in the following mediums: oil paint on a toned panel or canvas, acrylic paint on a toned panel or canvas, watercolor with inks and colored pencil for mixed media on watercolor paper or toned panel, intaglio prints on copper or zinc plates with mezzotint, etched and/or drypoint marks, and photography in either digital full frame or medium format.
People and portraits (including pets) are the subjects I have had the most success with when entering juried shows. My paintings, intaglios, and photographs have been accepted into shows over the years but my portraits of people are the only subject matter that have won awards.
My goal is to make people feel deeply when they see my work. I draw my inspiration from everyday life experience that surround me. I’ll document the experiences with my camera and work from those photographic images. Emotions and isolated solitary figures have made a great impact on my work. I believe in embracing those moments and figures and allowing them to become the basis of my creative process. Each artwork is deeply personal to me and serves as a moment recorded in time of a family member or a memory from an event or place in my life.
How often are you in your studio? Do you work outside of your studio much or at all?
My entire home is my studio—2,300 sq. ft. on the outskirts of town, just up the road from my alma mater UW–Parkside. My basement is my printmaking studio with a 24-inch width x 48-inch length Ettan intaglio press and a 12-inch width x 24-inch length Charles Brand intaglio press. I tend to work on copper and/or zinc plates and intaglio prints during the colder months of the year, and then paint or draw during the warmer months of the year. Photography for subject matter is a year-round activity for me.
When I’m not working in my home studio, I try to take photography trips to various destinations including Door County & Lake Geneva, WI, the upper Midwest, or out west to Utah or Arizona whenever possible.
What inspires you most these days? But also what do you go to bed thinking about most nights?
Art and music are my two passions and they occupy most of my thoughts each day. I tend to keep a sporadic schedule that will have me falling to sleep anywhere from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am depending on my obligations the following day.
What does it mean to you to get recognition as a RAM Fellowship Award winner?
Winning a RAM Fellowship Award in 2024 has been the greatest honor I’ve ever received in my life. I love creating art based on architecture and/or people. However, the portraits I have drawn, painted or printed from plates have brought me the most success for making it into shows and/or winning awards. There is no greater motivation than positive feedback and results. Winning this award has been a great honor and it is an equal honor for me to be in the presence of the other recipients of this award.
Sample of Work
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