Artist Bio

Artist Statement

My residence in Bucks County, Pennsylvania permits me to appreciate the true beauty that nature brings us. My sculpture represents an intense relationship between myself and the material with which I work. My art, which symbolizes life, comes from within the material. I first look for a suggested image in wood or stone that can be enhanced to represent a human or animal form, be it realistic, representational or abstract. Many times this is not seen until the grain is visible. Using my tools I release the figure from within the material. Contrasting color, texture and grain helps separate or bring together the parts of the figure. The finished form satisfies my creative urge to represent life from nature.

Biography

Ron Bevilacqua, a noteworthy sculptor from rural Upper Bucks County Pennsylvania, reflects the beauty of nature within the structure of rocks and trees. Living amidst these boulders and tall trees has given him the uncanny ability to see and bring to the surface interesting human and animal images. Many pieces are discovered on the shoreline of Adirondack Mountain lakes, in the forest and from his woodpile. If you have visited regional or national art exhibitions you are familiar with his distinctive work and awards. His sculptures are included in many private collection throughout the United States. Include one of his sculptures in your art collection and it emerges into a great conversation piece. Ron has created sculptures for over 35 years. His early careers working as a mason and a high school teacher have enabled him to acquire the skills necessary to creatively apply mallet and chisel techniques to wood and stone, transforming the natural materials into works of art. He studied with prominent Pennsylvania artists at the Baum School of Art for many years and carved marble in Pietrasanta, Italy. He shares his skills at his Thatcher Hill Sculpture Studio with his own students and other aspiring artist who need a place to work in an art inspiring atmosphere. Ron takes much pride in students who have exhibited their work in local juried exhibitions.

Born in Philadelphia and raised in Glenside, Pennsylvania, Ron relocated in 1979 with his family to Haycock Township in Upper Bucks County. Living amidst tall trees and granite glacier boulders has inspired him to work with what natural materials are readily available. His early influence in sculpture began with a fascination of the statues in church. Duplication of the realism portrayed in the stone statues became imbedded in his mind . . . but in the 1960’s and 70’s abstract art was much simpler to create. While pursuing a career as a brick and stonemason, Ron worked with found scrap metal from construction sites creating abstract welded metal sculptures. During that time he worked and supervised various high-rise, residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional construction projects in the Delaware Valley. He studied for a period of time with Linda Brenner at the Cheltenham Art Center. Working as a mason for thirteen years and then teaching the trade for seventeen years Ron acquired the skills necessary to creatively apply the mallet and chisel techniques to wood and stone, transforming the natural materials into works of art. As he studied sculpture at the Baum School of Art with Richard Lieberman, Ben Marcune and Jonathan Hertzel, he rekindled his early awareness of the complexity of human and animal forms by creating it within the natural materials of the earth. During the summer of 2000 Ron renewed his passion for figurative art by sculpting in the renowned marble region in Pietrasanta, Italy, a Mecca for stone sculptors worldwide.
Ron’s preferred carving material is Pennsylvania red cedar and also work with clay and other varieties of locally found wood, alabaster from Utah and marbles from Carrara, Italy and Vermont. Seeing images in pieces of driftwood or firewood is becoming a large part of his collected materials that are waiting to be enhanced and revealed to lovers of these sculptural portraits from nature. Ron also works with ornamental lawn and garden sculptures and actively pursue commission work with all materials.
Utilizing his teaching skills, he teaches sculpture classes in his Haycock studio.

“I invent nothing, I rediscover.” Auguste Rodin

Education

• Millersville State College
• Cheltenham Art Center
• Baum School of Art
• Temple University
• Pietrasanta, Italy

“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind” Leonardo da Vinci

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Exhibitions

“A sculptor is a person who is interested in the shape of things, a poet in words, a musician by sounds.” Henry Moore

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