Visitors will find a new exhibition at Historic Odessa Foundation Visitors Center Gallery.
The Wonders of Wildlife: Paintings and Prints by Richard Clifton features 37 pieces from the Milford resident.
In this week’s Arts Playlist, Clifton joins Delaware Public Media’s Kelli Steele to delve into this exhibition and his background.
Clifton is a self-taught Milford artist who uses acrylics as his medium.
He says his love of art started as a kid growing up on his family’s farm.
“As a kid I would see my dad or somebody else out on a tractor or whatever - working on the grounds and in the fields and I started drawing tractors at an early age with crayons and colored pencils," said Clifton. "And that was probably my first attempt at any kind of art.”
Clifton says he became interested in bird watching as he grew older and began drawing and painting songbirds and warblers.
Clifton says he’s never at a loss for inspiration since he lives on a historic family farm adjoining the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge on the Delaware Bay in Sussex County.
“It certainly is pretty good for a wildlife artist," Clifton said. "I live here on the farm - it’s about a 115-acre farm and I’ve done things over the course of time to enhance it for wildlife, with various food plots of other planning.”
Waterfowl ultimately became one of Clifton's favorite subjects. He has painted 53 duck stamps, including the 1996 Australian Duck Stamp and the 2007/2008 Federal Duck Stamp.
His work can be seen at the Historic Odessa Foundation through October 31, 2021.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
