Artist Weston Riffle’s paintings tell the story of San Diego County’s farmworkers in his new Fatsip Studio in Barracks 19 of the Arts District in Liberty Station.
The grand opening of Riffle’s new studio on August 2 coincided with First Friday at the former Naval Training Center, where guests are invited each month to meet practicing artists, discover outdoor public art installations and explore all that the Arts District has to offer.
Riffle is a native Californian who was born in La Mesa and raised in Ramona. He holds a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and a master’s degree from San Jose State. He describes himself as largely self-taught and 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 that he initially took an art class at SDSU to “get better grades.” He added that he was “better at it than I thought.”
The painter’s style is difficult to determine. “It’s expressionism, impressionism, definitely abstract, definitely not realistic,” Riffle said of his recurring theme, the working class in Southern California between the desert and the mountains.
Riffle said of his work, “I want to express the simple purity of the desires, actions and hopes of the people and places I know. The general themes, images and concepts reflect real and imagined memories of my childhood in rural California, my travels through the Central Valley, stories of previous generations and my own aging. 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 am trying to resolve or depict with each painting. Usually complex beginnings end in a simple composition. A fatalistic view seems to be the result.”
Riffle’s paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions as well as 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 on fatsip.com and is on display at the Golden Pine Gallery in Idyllwild and the Fatsip Studio in Liberty Station.
The subjects of most of Riffle’s paintings are idealized depictions of anonymous farm workers, often without faces or expression and with their backs to the viewer, almost always with their eyes closed or their faces hidden behind hats.
The artist said he paints instinctively. “I just start doing something (drawing) and it (the painting) appears,” he said, describing the thought process behind his paintings, which are on display in his Arts District studio. “They (the subjects) don’t need faces to be valuable,” he stressed.
Riffle’s wife Judy handles the marketing and promotion of his work.
When asked what advice he would give to aspiring artists from his life experience, Riffle replied, “Don’t take anyone’s advice. Just do what you want to do. I’ve never followed any rules. I don’t have a degree.” He concluded, “I always try to paint things that I can sell.”
