BEYOND THE SLOPE

MEET THE ARTIST

Ron Gramling

After twenty years of representational painting by hand, Ron Gramling’s work took a profound turn in 2005 when cumulative trauma injuries to his arms forced him to paint entirely with his feet. Years of artistic experimentation followed. A paintbrush between the toes felt too limiting. Hopping around on one leg while swirling paint around with the other was too demanding on his body. Gramling’s defining moment came a few years into the foot painting journey by chance, when he noticed some toe prints haphazardly left behind on the canvas. He now purposely fills his paintings full of those toe prints, usually thousands of them on a single piece. The process has evolved and he now sits on a stool and lets his right foot dangle over the canvas before applying paint, standing only occasionally. The majority of his current work is more abstract, bold and vibrant. While Ron’s paintings are inspired by nature, all of the compositions come from his imagination. Gramling’s work has been shown in exhibitions and galleries around the country, including the International Museum of Contemporary Masters of Fine Art Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art in San Antonio, TX and Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, WI. In addition, his work is in the collection of Mayo Clinic in Tomah, WI