A native of Santa Barbara, California, Yaco has spent most of his life drawing and painting. Since 1965 he has been exhibiting his watercolors and oils in fine art galleries. He studied fine arts at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His studies were interrupted by the Vietnam War. He was assigned the unique role of combat artist for the U. S. Marine Corps. After returning to civilian life, Yaco won a scholarship that afforded him the freedom to travel around the United States for two years meeting and drawing portraits of Americans. During his thirty-five-year painting career he periodically accepted portrait and conceptual design commissions. Yaco has taught life drawing, painting and perspective theory at colleges and university campuses.

His works have been featured at the American Gallery, Smithsonian, U.S. Pentagon, Naval Museum and the U. S. Marine Corps Headquarters.

Yaco is now living in upstate New York. His subjects are as diverse as his medium mercurial. His paintings include his family, neighborhood animals, friends, hills, sea, sky, garden, and "found" objects. His paintings are swathed with confident passes of rich color that lift his subjects from the ordinary to the sublime.

"Dancer"

"Genesis"

"Hitching Post"

"Pacifica"

"Island View"

"Saratoga Baths"

"Summer Traces"

Spa Fine Art

376 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Richard Yaco