Art has always been a part of Richard Gabriele’s life. During his childhood, his imagination had him constantly drawing. But it wasn’t until his first formal art history class in college that he recognized the reality of his being an artist.

“When one is young, and the door to history is first opened it is quite overwhelming and a clock begins ticking,” Gabriele said. “That clock inspired me to study tenaciously, both in the studio and in the library.”

His talent has been recognized as Gabriele has received numerous awards for his art, including, most prestigiously, an appearance in the Art of the State held annually at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg this summer.

Local students are benefiting from the artistic vision that he presents in one of the several classes he teaches at Salem Community College. Beginning his third year on campus as an adjunct instructor in the visual arts department this month, Gabriele has taught introductory drawing, two-dimensional design, figure drawing and introductory painting.

A resident of Langhorne, Pa., Gabriele earned his bachelor’s degree from Haverford College, double majoring in fine arts and history of art. He then received his master’s from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

He has studied first-hand the masters – Rembrandt, Titian, Michelangelo and Donatello, but it was the work of the American painters Morris Graves and Mark Tobey that has truly touched Gabriele and his work. In August 2006, he was invited by the Morris Graves Foundation to live and paint at Graves’ studio in Northern California.

It was during this time that Gabriele was moved to paint the work that was part of the Pennsylvania Art of the State exhibit. “Bird of the Inner Eye” was inspired by a sunset where he said the colors “crystallized into the form of the bird.” This was the beginning of a new way of visualizing his paintings as he used new color schemes and experimented with color washes on thin handmade papers.

“What I have found in my studio since returning is that a mysterious image appears when I relinquish the need to force the materials into a synthetic replica of a preconceived image in my mind,” he said. “The painting will have purpose as it reminds viewers of our human sensibility for poetry, the logic of another realm, in which we also exist.”

Gabriele has traveled extensively, gathering experiences and influences to perfect his painting techniques. He describes his work as figurative, yet not naturalistic or realistic. He allows those viewing his art to understand the overall theme while still giving them the imaginative space to be affected by the image individually. He also gives great importance to the notion of metaphysical expression.

“I purposefully modified natural appearances to charge images with psychological implications,” he said. “My final series of figures (in graduate school) were a testament to the individual’s isolation and struggle to overcome discord.”

In addition to his studio work and teaching at SCC, Gabriele teaches as an adjunct professor at two other community colleges. He also has 21 paintings, including “Bird of the Inner Eye,” on display in a two-man exhibition at New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery in New Hope, Pa.

He was accepted into the annual National Juried Exhibition at the Lancaster County Art Association for the second year in a row where his painting “Restless Steller’s Jay” was presented first place.