Rick Worthington is a contemporary impressionist painter who lives and works in the artistic community of Elora, Ontario. He was born and raised in small town southwester Ontario where the coffee shops and diners were the spaces in which neighbours and friends would congregate and it was in these spaces where he first became fascinated with how light and colour could make the mundane feel magical. Despite having felt drawn to create art as a young person it wasn’t until he turned 30 that he could no longer resist the siren song of the artists life. While working full-time in social services he re-introduced himself to painting through hours of practice, reading and in finding mentors from whom he could learn including the well known plein air artist Kevin McPherson. Rick is now a full-time artist with a passion for painting en plein air having fallen under the spell of the impressionist masters including Mattiess and Sorolla. It is when painting in moments of quickly changing light that Rick feels he is “…best able to paint from my heart as I do not have time to overthink what I am making and it is this space that I feel most connected to the creative spirit”. Over the past two decades Rick has had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe and North America and has lived and worked in smalls towns and cities throughout Ontario and on the West Coast of Canada. Whether living and creating in a small rural town or in a large city he uses both colour and contrast in his paintings to explore intimate moments within a larger environment. Rick’s work is held in the permanent collection of the Centre Wellington Museum and Archives along with private collections throughout North America and Europe and can be found at the Abbostford, BC Gallery. He has been featured in the magazine Sideroads of Waterloo Wellington and he has had a piece recognized in the Plein Air Magazine, having placed first in the magazines Salon Competition for Plein Air Water. Rick has won numerous plein air competitions including the Toronto Plein Air Competition, the Bellville Plein Air Competition, the Ontario Plein Air Society Challenge and the Elora Plein Air Competition. He has participated in numerous juried shows including the Sooke Fine Arts show, the TD Victoria Art Gallery Paint In, the Toronto Arts Project Juried Show and the Insights Juried Art Show. When not in his studio creating, Rick can be found following his passion of painting en plein air within the communities where he travels to and where he resides.