Abstract painting by Fresno artist Richard Silva. Bold composition depicting a single bird, possibly a crow or raven on a simple blue and yellow / orange background that includes what looks like a multi-story building.   Bold color. Confident geometry. Strong horizontal composition.

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas. Signed "Rich Silva" on back of canvas in pencil.

DIMENSIONS - image: 19" high x 22.25" wide.

Richard Silva is a Portuguese American artist born in Fresno, California in 1939, one of a family of twelve. Richard attended public school and worked many jobs to make ends meet, including elevator operator and custodian. Richard moved to San Francisco in 1970 and attending the San Francisco Academy of Art and the San Francisco Art Institute, and established his figurative painting style for two years, while in San Francisco Silva studied with artists Joan Brown and Sam Tchakalian, and was influenced by the painters from the fifties and sixties including William DeKooning and Robert DeNiro Sr. After four years of study, Silva lived and worked as a painter in San Francisco for another twelve years, then returned to his roots in Fresno. 

Silva continued to paint with the support of his wife and children, and quickly filled his home and storage spaces with his artwork, but did not exhibit widely.  In 1999 he joined Fig Tree Gallery, one of the oldest cooperative galleries in California, where he had his first one man show. The sale of paintings validated years of study, hard work, and ambition. Silva currently paints and shows in a shared studio gallery space in Downtown Fresno with artist and poet Dixie Salazar.