Growing up in New York surrounded by artists, Gay Summer Rick began her arts education early in life. She went on to formally study art and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, where she drew, painted and sculpted images on clay forms and vessels. After receiving a Master’s degree in Business Administration, she continued her art training in Los Angeles in painting, which became the primary focus of her art practice. A resident of Southern California for over 25 years, the artist maintains studios in Inglewood and Malibu.
The artist paints iconic urban coastal landscapes, from Los Angeles to New York City, rendered with a keen sense of place and a flair for abstraction. Sparsely populated though replete with objects and evidence of the built environment, her poetic, palimpsestic aesthetic yields scenes that are at once dreamlike and familiar, painterly, evocative, and emotionally resonant. The resplendent calm of her highway and byway sojourns claims influences from Diebenkorn to Rothko and Turner; resulting in expressive, mottled surface qualities that thwart photographic reproduction. Revealing an unexpected beauty in commonplace elements within the urban landscape, her unique style is a melding of impressionism and color-field painting describing the quiet vibration of life where the city meets the sea.
Gay Summer Rick regularly exhibits in California and Hawaii, and has shown in Japan, Europe, and across the United States. Her paintings have been featured in solo gallery and museum exhibitions, and in international and national group exhibitions. Her work has received numerous awards and honors, and she is a member of Oil Painters of America, California Art Club, Malibu Art Association, and is listed by the Malibu Cultural Arts Commission. Her paintings are held in corporate and private collections around the world.
