Elise Richman | elisemariarichman@gmail.com

High Lonesome


The High Lonesome landscapes are love letters to place, to the rivers and streams where Snake River salmon and steelhead begin and end their remarkable and imperiled life cycle. These landscapes also serve as encounters with diverse and specific habitats the have shaped and been shaped by distinct salmon populations.
Dagger Falls, watercolor and pastel on paper, 66 x 46 inches, 2026
Bear Valley and Elk Creek Confluence, watercolor and pastel on paper,  49 x 66 inches, 2025
Lostine River, watercolor, charcoal, and pastel on paper,  40 x  20.75 inches, 2025
Elk Creek, watercolor on paper,  24 x 28 inches, 2025
Red Fish Lake, watercolor on paper, 29 x 42 inches, 2026
The Grande Ronde River, watercolor and pastel on paper,  39 x 51 inches, 2026
Sunbeam Dam, watercolor and pastel on paper,  51 x 39.5 inches, 2021
Meadow Near Salmon River Headwaters, colored pencil on paper, 34 x 50 inches, 2024
River of No Return Meadow Grass, colored pencil on paper, 43 x 34 inches, 2025
Johnson Creek Meadow, colored pencil on paper,  28 x 46.5 inches, 2026
Lemhi Willow, colored pencil on paper, 34.5 x 46 inches, 2026
Minam River, watercolor and pastel on paper,  19 x 14 inches, 2025
Catherine Creek, watercolor on paper,  14 x 15.5 inches, 2026
Salmon River Headwaters 4, willow ink on paper, 14 x 15.5 inches, 2024
Hurricane Creek, watercolor on paper, 17.25 x 12.5 inches, 2025
Salmon River Headwaters, watercolor on paper,  22 x 29 inches, 2026
Salmon River Headwaters 1, willow ink on paper,  14.5 x 15 inches, 2024
Salmon Headwaters 2, willow ink on paper, 14 x 14.5 inches, 2024
Salmon Headwaters 3, willow ink on paper, 14.25 x 18.75 inches, 2024
Tucannon River,  watercolor on paper, 13 x 11 inches, 2025
South Fork Salmon River, watercolor on paper,  21.25 x 15 inches, 2026
Lochsa River, watercolor on paper,  18 x 22 inches, 2026
Marsh Creek, watercolor and pastel on paper,  23.25 x 18.25 inches. 2026
Middle Fork Salmon River,  watercolor and graphite on paper, 42.5 x 54.5 inches, 2023
Middle Fork Salmon Sketch, watercolor on paper,  22 x 22 inches, 2026
Grande Ronde and Wenaha River Confluence,  watercolor and pastel on paper, 18 x 24 inches, 2025
Wenaha River, ink on paper, 15 x 11 inches, 2025
Beaver Creek, watercolor on paper, 23 x 17 inches, 2026
Main Salmon River, watercolor on paper, 30x22 inches, 2026

Tuccanon River, ink on paper,  14 x 13.5 inches, 2025
Petitt Lake Sketch,  watercolor and pastel on paper, 15 x 11 inches, 2023




Ripple and  Threads    

Ripples of water act as a reminder of the reverberations of acts/action. The Ripple Ellipse series explores the notion of “ripple effects” through color contrast and layered elliptical gestures.  

These paintings begin with direct gestures and evolve as particular colors define distilled, clarified sensations of rippling motion. The interplay between singular, immediate action and sustained, accumulative acts is fundamental to the Ripple Ellipse paintings’ visual structure and chromatic contrast.

Color relativity and interaction are powerful and provide a model for nuanced, contextual thinking. These paintings honor the inherent properties of diverse pigments, thereby modeling color’s ablitity to be expansive, inclusive and relational.


Shadow Box Ovoid Violet-Red, Nana’s thread, acrylic, wood, canvas,  22x28x6 inches
The flow of rivers provides a metaphor for time’s passage. Nana’s Thread pieces engage with inter-generational connections, thereby embodying time’s passage and enduring relationships. 

My Nana sewed and embroidered into the wee hours most nights. I brought a small metal cabinet with drawers holding all her thread to my studio when she passed away; each drawer holds cotton floss and thin woolen yarn collected over decades. She organized her thread according to color relationships, each drawer holds a shared hue. 

I sense Nana’s presence in these threads, just as her care and spirit are stitched into her quilts that keep us warm and wall hangings that enliven our homes.

 
Ripple Ellipse: Rise, Oil on canvas, 18 x 22 inches
Ripple Ellipse Vortex, Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches
Composite Ripple Ellipse, Oil on panel, 12 x 14 inches
Ripple Ellipse, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches
Ovoid Red-Orange, Nana’s thread, acrylic, and paper, 22 x 16 inches
Ovoid Blue-Green, Nana’s thread, acrylic, and canvas, 20 x 15 inches
Ovoid Orange-Yellow, Nana’s thread, acrylic, and canvas, 24x17 inches
Thread Spectrum Column, Nana’s thread, 10 ft. x 32 in. x 38 in.
Thread Spectrum Column (detail), Nana’s thread, 10 ft. x 32 in. x 38 in.