About the Artist

Ray Horner was born in New Haven Connecticut in 1952. He graduated from the University of Connecticut (B.F.A.) and received his Masters of Fine Arts' degree from the University of Massachusetts. The challenge and the pursuit for excellence in his painting and printmaking have never ceased. This passion has resulted in many awards, citations and satisfied collectors.

Ray incorporates a fusion of realism and abstraction in his work. His color is applied in layers so that it exuberantly radiates through each layer. The use of gestural brush work help to indicate the form and movement in the paintings. Allowing happy accidents to happen that invite new ways of seeing and exploration does the fusion. His deliberate understating of some areas of the painting lets the viewer’s mind participate in the creative process. "My goal, he says, is that each person who views my work will be stimulated, through their own perceptions, to view all aspects of their life creatively."

"Ray's work is a living experience, you look at his work and instantly feel the paintings come alive and your part in it, you feel the movement, the going ons and when you look away you feel good. Very, very special work." Ed Bright, WPAT, New York.

His paintings are part of various permanent collections including; the Greater Hartford Civic and Arts Festival collection, Eastern Connecticut State College, and the Wheelchair Gallery in Union, New Jersey.

Ray has received many awards and citations. His painting," the family," along with works by renown artist Jacob Lawrence, Henry O. Tanner, Elizabeth Catlett, and William H. Johnson was selected by the American Visions magazine, (December 1987), for inclusion in an article called " Building the Future for Black Families."

Ray Horner has been included in many - group, one person and juried exhibits including the New Jersey Watercolor Society Show.

Ray is a resident of Irvington, NJ. He has taught art at the University of Massachusetts, MA, Southern Connecticut State College, CT., and Essex County College, NJ. and The Montclair Art Museum School, NJ.

Ray Horner Jr.
P.O. Box 1003
Maplewood, New Jersey 07040
Tel. (973) 399-7454
Fax # (973) 416-0571
E-mail: Hornerart@aol.com