As a portrait artist I try to write a novel – or at least a short story – in an abbreviated visual form about my subject. I feel a portrait should be a combination of selective truths about a person that, when taken as a whole, tell a story reflecting a personality and a life. My hope is that the viewer will “read” the painting perhaps quickly at first, but then come back again, and perhaps several times, to savor the carefully designed and integrated details of form and character.

I admire paintings that are very much like life or nature without copying nature. I strive to make portraits that have the qualities of simplicity, truthfulness and solidity. – Richard Halstead

Richard Halstead’ s portraits are included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Yale University, University of Toronto, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, the University of Melbourne (Australia), the State of Illinois, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and private collections. He has painted the portraits of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Illinois Governor George Ryan, business executive and Chicago Art Institute and Terra Museum of Art Chairman Marshall Field V, American Bar Association President Justin Stanley, internationally acclaimed Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, University of Chicago professor and art historian Dr. Harrie Vanderstappan, and many others. In addition Halstead has completed many family portraits, exhibiting special skills in portraits of children and young adults in both pastel and oil. Halstead was formerly a faculty member at the American Academy of Art and the Ontario College of Art.