I want the essence of the inner soul to be on the canvas. --Richard Mayhew

The de Saisset Museum is pleased to participate in this three-museum retrospective of the work of Richard Mayhew. Mayhew has enjoyed a long and rewarding career, both as an artist and educator. This exhibition consists of paintings and watercolors executed during the late 1970s to early 1990s. During this period, Mayhew was a professor of art at Pennsylvania State University. For a four-year period beginning in 1975, he would take sabbaticals from his position in Pennsylvania and drive across the country in order to teach at San Jose State. These transcontinental sojourns, sometimes via a northern route through Canada and other times via the Southwest, provided a wealth of inspiration for his expressionistic landscapes. They are not exact evocations of any particular location, but rather composite impressions, based on his memories of the various places he had visited.