Artist Weston Riffle’s paintings speak to the history of farm workers in San Diego County in his new Fatsip Studio in Barracks 19 of the Arts District in Liberty Station.
Riffle’s grand opening on Aug. 2 in his new studio space coincided with First Friday at the former Naval Training Center, where guests are invited monthly to meet working artists, discover outdoor public art installations, and explore all Arts District has to offer.
A native Californian born in La Mesa who grew up in Ramona, Riffle has a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and a master’s degree from San Jose State. He characterizes himself as being mostly self-taught, as well as being an “anti-artist.” His paintings portray the beauty and culture of early California, particularly the southern and agricultural regions.
Riffle never intended to be an artist. “It just happened,” he said noting he initially took an art class at SDSU to “try and get better grades,” adding he turned out to be “better at it than I thought.”
The painter’s style is tough to pinpoint. “It’s expressionism, impressionism, definitely done abstract, definitely not realistic,” Riffle said of his recurrent theme, working-class people in Southern California between the deserts and mountains.
Of his work, Riffle said: “I wish to express simple purity in desire, action, and hope, of the people and places I have known. Overall themes, images, and concepts reflect real and imagined memories of my experience growing up a rural Californian, traveling through the Central Valley, stories of prior generations, and growing old myself. The general theme is the struggle of the individual against forces not clearly understood. Form, composition, and color develop around the individual or situation I attempt to resolve or portray with each painting. Usually complex beginnings end in simple composition. A fatalistic view seems to be the result.”
Riffle’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows and permanent collections throughout California including the National Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, the William D. Cannon Art Gallery, the Oceanside Museum of Art, and the Gotthelf Gallery in La Jolla. Weston’s work can also be found at fatsip.com and on display at Golden Pine Gallery in Idyllwild, and Fatsip Studio in Liberty Station.
Subjects in most of Riffle’s paintings are idealized images of anonymous farm workers, often faceless or expressionless with backs turned, nearly always with eyes closed or faces hidden by hats.
The artist said he paints instinctively. ‘I just start doing something (drawing) and it (painting) shows up,” he said describing his thought process behind his paintings on exhibit in his Arts District studio. “They (subjects) don’t need faces to be valuable,” he pointed out.
Riffle’s wife, Judy, handles marketing and promotion of his work.
Asked what advice he’d give to budding arts from his lived experience, riffle counseled: “Don’t take anyone’s advice. Just do what you want to do. I’ve never followed any rules. I didn’t get a degree.” He concluded, “I always try to paint stuff I can sell.”
