Ray Hare wants to do more than awe you with the lifelike quality of his paintings.  With every brushstroke, the photorealistic artist beckons you to draw near until you step into and experience his art.

“I paint large to get your attention at a distance,” says the Old Towne-based artist, whose work depicting larger-than life close-ups of people, animals, landscapes and plants appears in galleries, museums and private collections.  “When you approach, I don’t want you to arrive and make the same assumption as when you started.  As you get closer, I want you to see the colors and patterns and get lost in the abstraction of the painting.”

His goal might sound challenging, but Hare accomplishes it, says Shanan Campbell Wells, owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery in Santa Fe, which is one of the galleries that represents his work.  “Ray Hare is at the forefront of photorealism today,” she says.  “He is a true master.  I first saw his work in New York and was immediately drawn to it.  The level of emotion that pours into a piece is mesmerizing.  I enjoy telling clients that it isn’t photography.  Many don’t believe me, until they learn about his process.  Then they are blown away and respect it even more.”

Painting Process

When Hare paints, it’s not a casual undertaking.  “The scale of the canvass makes it a physical encounter,” says the artist, who paints standing up.  He works from an 11x17-inch photographic print, and he starts with the eyes.

Hare paints what he loves, like people, plants, dogs and cats and exotic animals. The lion pictured in this issue is from his big cat series.

“The lion had been through many wars and was pretty beaten up, so it was painful to paint, but endeared me to the animal,” he says.  “His face tells his life story as the leader of his pride.  He has hollows where he shouldn’t because of lost flesh, and his nose is damaged.  This was the first cat I painted where I showed teeth, but it is more like a pant than a growl.”

Expressing Life

Even though Hare considers himself a photorealist, he admits that there is something about many photorealistic paintings that he doesn’t like.  “Most photorealistic paintings are very rendered.  To me that means they are frozen or even dead.  I want to paint something that induces life and frees the image.  That’s what I hope to do with my work,” says the artist, who was commissioned by ABC to paint Oprah Winfrey’s portrait for her private collection.  “I strive to create paintings that when you approach them, the lines become a little blurry, just as when you put out your hand to touch an animal, it shifts.”

Journey to the Big Canvas

Hare was born in Berkeley in 1949 and spent most of his childhood in Clayton, where he played on the ranches of his friends.  When he was a sophomore in high school in the mid-1960s, he severely injured himself playing sports and started painting while recuperating.  His teacher saw his affinity for art and started submitting his paintings for county and state scholarships.

“Through winning several of those scholarships, I received the opportunity to learn from working artists,” says Hare.  “When I saw how they could paint a landscape, capture the scene, and then walk away with it, I was intrigued.  It rang a bell in me, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.  I wanted to paint!  I started painting five to six watercolors a day.”

Hare ended up getting a scholarship to the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with High Distinction.  He followed that degree with a Masters of Fine Art from San Francisco State University.  It was during his sophomore year in college that he decided he wanted to work on a much larger scale, so he moved from 24x36-inch watercolors to acrylic canvases starting at 4x6 feet.

The move to large canvases is indicative of how Hare constantly challenges himself.  “The oversized canvas allowed me to go further than my watercolors,” he says.  “I always try to push the limits creatively.  It scares me, but it makes me grow as an artist.  When I capture what I want on canvas, the fear turns to joy.”

Contact Ray Hare at [email protected].