My name is John Richards, Jr. but most call me by my nickname, "Skeets."  I was born in Adams, Massachusetts, graduated from the former Adams Memorial High School and earned a B.A. in Physics and an M.A. in Education from North Adams State College, now called Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. After college, I became a science teacher at Berkshire Country Day School and after that, a Physics Teacher at Drury High School in North Adams, MA. I officially retired from the school system in 2004 after 34 years teaching.           

As far as my art goes, I am basically self-taught. My desire to paint in oils began as a child but took hold in the mid-1980s due to a television “how-to” painter named Bill Alexander.  He was a teacher of Bob Ross, another PBS featured landscape painter.  Shortly afterwards I became very interested in the landscape paintings of the Hudson River School Painters of the mid-1800s, including such artists as Frederic Church, George Inness, and Albert Bierstadt.  Their ability to portray nature as they saw it, a wondrous place with intricate details that man is subordinate to, was beyond compare.  My style has evolved in this manner.  I see nature as our home, a sacred place to be revered and not taken advantage of.  You’ll see virtually no semblance of modern technical life, such as cars, computers, skyscrapers, etc., in my paintings. I choose to paint scenes that portray serenity and quiet contemplation, much like the days of my youth in Adams. Those days were a time of dairy farms, Little League Baseball, and walks in the woods with my dog.  I am also painting still life subjects; they appeal to that sense of serenity that I also long for.