Landscapes Near Me

Works by Richard Raiselis

JANUARY 20 – MARCH 6, 2026

808 Gallery

Landscapes Near Me by artist Richard Raiselis presents paintings created over three decades in and around Boston, from university studios to high-floor city views and the artist’s suburban home. Working outdoors or beside expansive windows, Raiselis embraces shifting light, weather, and spontaneous encounters with nature to shape large, vivid works made directly from life. The exhibition highlights his commitment to color, atmosphere, and the sensory experience of place, enhanced at the 808 Gallery by natural north light that echoes the conditions in which the paintings were made.

Landscapes Near Me comprises a selection of pictures from four series of paintings that I completed during three decades of teaching and painting in Boston. I made the earliest paintings here on the BU campus in Warren Towers, Claflin Hall, the Photonics Building, in 855 studios and offices, and in my own studio on the third floor above the 808 Gallery. Later, thanks to the generosity of a few kind individuals, I had the privilege to work on high floors of three buildings in the Financial District. Two series of paintings from my home in the Boston suburbs round out this quartet.

I like to work on location at a large window, or better, outside in the sunshine under a blue sky. Painting outdoors directly from life engages all the senses and makes me feel alive. Changing light, temperature, and humidity require response. A herd of deer eating my plants, a dragonfly landing on my brush, or an owl silently slipping through the pines can shift attention and intention.

Painting Near Me makes it easier to make large pictures that need months of work. Lugging gear, setting up, and cleaning up are all simplified. Travel time becomes painting time. And maybe best of all, the color outdoors is always more brilliant, saturated, and complex. For me, working outside stimulates memory, reflection, and emotion.

I am delighted that the 808 Gallery has glass window walls with a north light color spectrum broader than gallery flood lights alone. This lighting combination means that my paintings will appear to you as they appeared to me when I made them outside. Blues and violets will be richer, juxtaposed yellows and oranges a little softer, as I intended. I know that carefully calibrating hue and tonal relationships is my most promising path to expression. According to artist Paul Klee, “Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.”

-Richard Raiselis

I like to work on location at a large window, or better, outside in the sunshine under a blue sky. Painting outdoors directly from life engages all the senses and makes me feel alive. A herd of deer eating my plants, a dragonfly landing on my brush, or an owl silently slipping through the pines can shift attention and intention.

-Richard Raiselis

RECEPTION DETAILS

Join BU Art Galleries on Thursday, February 12, from 5 – 7pm, to celebrate Richard Raiselis and his exhibition, Landscapes Near Me, on view at 808 Gallery from January 20 – March 6, 2026.

The event and exhibition are free and open to the public!