Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that artist Kristi Richter is their newest featured artist.  Kristi will now be presented in the Gallery’s Artist Showcase section for the next month.

Kristi Richter was born and grew up in Chicago and now resides in Nashville, Tennessee.  Art has always been a priority, and she owes her zealous interest due to her grandfather, who was a professional commercial artist and had a studio in Chicago.  Her mother was also an artist, so she inherited talent from both sides of the family.

She had always been interested in art as far back as grade school and art teachers paid special attention to her, encouraging her to develop her natural abilities.  As a youngster, she never purchased store bought cards but always created cards for her parent’s birthdays and other special holiday occasions, and she was always designing comic books.  

Kristi followed an art curriculum through high school, but it was when she attended The American Academy of Art and Chicago Academy of Fine Arts respectively, that she really started to understand her potential and how to express it.  Her studies introduced her to the many facets of art such as advertising, illustration, calligraphy, photography, scratchboard, abstract, design, charcoal drawing with live models, and color schemes.  Over time, she was able to recognize her weaknesses and sought ways to improve them, and she solidified her strengths. 

Kristi believes a bona fide artist is capable of rendering any initiative and she occasionally undertakes endeavors that do not include animals, which are her passion and forte.  Her goal is to capture her subject’s expression, colors, hair, and fur consistencies which can sometimes present a very complex challenge. 

Kristi’s favorite medium is acrylics because they blend easily, dry quickly and the colors are opulent and vibrant.  Most of her work is done in acrylics and has included pet portraits, posters and advertisements that are animal-related.  She has also written and illustrated a children’s book about a dog which she would like to publish.

Second to none is scratchboard which she found particularly challenging because of the complexity of animal fur textures.  She views scratchboard as being a very meticulous medium because there is very little room for mistakes, but because of this, the end result is gratifying, and it is her scratchboards that have won first place in several art competitions.

Kristi’s definitive objective is to start a business exclusively doing pet portraits or a favorite wildlife creature rendered in acrylics, scratchboard, watercolor, abstract, and cartoon.  She has designed a business card and advertising poster and her logo is “Kristi’s Kritters”.

Kristi can be reached at keddywumpus@yahoo.com