Ricky Gumbrecht was born in 1958 in a small town in the westernmost part of Germany, close to the French border. She was one of those children to whom drawing and painting comes naturally, almost without noticing. During her teenage years, Ricky loved to spend vacation time at the Northern German seaside and, as an exchange student, in France. She majored in French Literature, Spanish Literature, and Linguistics from the Ruhr University at Bochum to become a high school teacher in those subject areas.

After moving to the Bay Area in 1989 and having two children, Ricky rediscovered her love for painting and drawing- which passion led her to take classes at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. She enjoys working on her pieces and showing them alongside fellow artists in the unique environment at the Pacific Art League. She is part of a group of talented women who have known, worked and supported each other for 10 to 15 years.

She enjoys large formats, strong (mostly acrylic) colors, elementary looking forms, and sensual textures of different origins. Ricky’s production method is thoroughly experimental. She lets constellations of colors and forms emerge on the canvas or on a wood panel – to then follow and develop the impressions and intuitions that such constellations suggest to her. Sometimes, this approach will take her towards figurative compositions and even dream-like scenes. But most of her work is decidedly abstract, staging plays and sometimes dramas of color and form.

Over the years, different transfer techniques have become important to Ricky, and often she integrates natural materials, found objects, and even industrial artifacts into her compositions, thus blurring the border between collage and painting.

Ricky Gumbrecht takes inspiration from the tradition of the early 20th century “classical Modernity,” above all from the work of de Kooning, Rauschenberg, Rothko and Schwitters. Selectively, she also studies techniques of more historically remote artists and genres from the Western and the Asian traditions. Her most admired teachers have been Max Rupp, Dianne Erickson, Inge Infante and Stella Zhang.

Ricky’s work has entered numerous juried shows at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, CA where she has won several prizes, among them a “First Prize” with her piece “In the Mind’s Eye” in October 2009‘s “Black and White Show.” She has sold her work to Private collectors in the US and in Europe.