rich Timmons
by Bob Waite
The Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery is user friendly. Rich self-professedly is not a salesman. Although he is equipped with many years of marketing expertise, he sees his role at the gallery as that of a facilitator. “I like to engage with a person about particular artists and styles,” he says, “but if a person comes in and says, ‘I just want to roam around,’ I let them roam around.”
The walls of the Rich Timmons Gallery are shaped like an ‘H’ with a downstairs and a balcony floor. The lighting is very subtle. It perfectly illuminates the paintings, and yet because of the dark ceiling, the light in the gallery is subdued and very pleasant. Rich makes it easy to view art and make decisions. So easy, it is almost hard to believe. He has paintings in stacks on the floor that he lets prospective buyers look through. “I don’t have to put really good paintings into storage. I can give people more choices. Also, I know that the kind of people who come here understand the value of art and can be trusted to handle it.”
The paintings hanging on the walls of the Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery are bigger than you usually see in most of the local art galleries. Rich says, “When somebody walks into my gallery, I share with them that we are a fairly new gallery; we’re in our sixth year and that we specialize in regional, national and international art. And then I tell them that one of my specialties is larger paintings.”
Larger paintings could be 48 inches by 48 inches or it could be five feet by 12 feet like one by Persian Painter Katayoun Stewart, that is hanging on the wall. And although there are small and medium size painting throughout the gallery, large is the order of the day.
Rich explains, “We come out of marketing. We were the largest marketing research firm in this area. We represented healthcare, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and banking. And we knew that when you start a new business you first have to do your homework. And as we did our homework, we realized that the local art galleries were small and they specialized in smaller work. They didn’t have galleries that could accommodate a 48 by 48 or a five foot by 12 foot painting.”
But large is what Rich had in mind not only for the size of the paintings, but also for the gallery itself. After selling the largest ad agency in the area, Rich and his wife Julie decided they wanted to open an art gallery. “We always enjoyed art galleries,” Rich says. “Whenever we travel we go into art galleries and we buy a little painting. We’ll buy a painting as a memento. So I asked my wife about how she would feel about opening an art gallery? And I also told her that if we do it, we are going to be the biggest and the best in the area. She loved the idea.”
Rich began his business career working in art and advertising. A friend of his got him a job at a large design firm in Philadelphia called National Designers. There he learned everything from calligraphy to sketching to graphic arts. He served in Air Force and married his high school sweetheart and soon they went into business together. One day he told his wife that he wanted to buy a computer, sell the home and go into business. Julie agreed. And without even knowing for sure what a computer did, they bought one, sold their house and went into business, selling the new photo type to ad agencies to replace the hot type they were using. Eventually they added more things to their repertoire and became the largest ad agency in the area. Several years ago someone offered to buy their business, and it was an offer too good to refuse, so they sold it and decided to open an art gallery.
Rich didn’t want to go to the local artists from other galleries and ask them to move to his. Not only wasn’t it an ethical thing to do, but it would have left them a bigger version of what everyone else is doing. “At first we decided to position ourselves as a gallery that specialized only in large art that was regional and national. But as we were doing our research we decided to position ourselves as a gallery that specialized in large art that was mostly regional and national. And then as we continued looking, we found Julia Klimova, a native of Russia and Valeriy Skrypka who is from the Ukraine, so we began to integrate international artists into our collection.”
Large, regional and international also includes some local to this area and to areas nearby. One painter who is considered a Bucks County artist, even though he lives a little outside the area now, is Bradley Boyer. Brad has a whole body of work that centers around this one scene in the Carversville area off Fleecydale Road by the Paunacussing Creek. Speaking of Brad, Rich says, “Brad is hooked on a particular scene. He paints this scene from different angles in Carversville. He paints them outdoors in the snow. And the very first thing he does is build a fire. He builds a fire so he can stay warm while he is painting. When you look at the painting you can actually see that because of the temperature, the paint is drying differently.”
Another artist whose work can be seen at Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery is George Gallo. He loves to paint Bucks County scenes, yet he lives in Hollywood. He is a respected artist who found his niche as a Bucks County Impressionist painter. “He is inspired by Edward Redfield and Daniel Garber and considers himself a painter in the Bucks County Impressionist tradition. George only uses eight tubes of paint. So everything comes out of eight tubes. That’s his palette. One of the fascinating things about George is that he’ll spend about an hour or two just sitting, standing and walking around an area he is going to paint. He really reflects about it. He paints these paintings in a way where he ultimately sees the glory of God.” Some of his work is found in the prestigious Butler Institute of American Art.
Although most of the work featured at the Rich Timmons Fine Art Gallery is either realistic or Impressionist, there are some very interesting abstract painters like Ursula Brenner from Cincinnati whose work is very lighthearted and friendly. Also there is an interesting Russian, Julia Cumu, who does beautiful floral abstracts.
Rich’s customer-friendly style must be legendary among local art buyers. A good example of this is a client who came into the store and liked five paintings but could not decide between them, not knowing which would look best in the room he wanted to put it. Rich says, “I said to him, ‘Well, take them all home.’ He said, ‘You’re going to let me take them all home.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I don’t mind, Take them home.’ It turned out that the client had a Lexus SUV with folding seats and the painting wouldn’t fit, so we took the seats out and left them at the gallery and took the paintings home to see which one looked best.”
Rich says, “That’s what I do. I accommodate my clients. If a client is really serious about a painting but they can’t make their mind up, I just say, ‘Take them home. Hang them up and see what they look like.’”
Rich Timmons says, “I like to help artists.” Considering his and Julie’s journey from marketing experts to Gallery owners, Rich loves to help emerging artists and is willing to take a chance on someone with potential. His artists are from all over the world representing many regions and nationalities. He also has artisst that are young and old. “I have an artist who is 85 years old,” he says. “Rhoda Yanow was just inducted into the Pastel Society of America Hall of Fame.”
Rich appreciates his life and knows it is a gift. “I come out of a poor blue collar area, and God has blessed me unbelievably.” A man of faith, he says, “I integrate my faith into everything I do.” And that’s why he has so much gratitude to his artists, his clients and, of course, his God.
The Rich Timmons Fine Gallery is located at 3795 Route 202, Doylestown, PA 18902. Rich can be reached at 267-247-5867. You can visit him online at www.3795gallery.com.
Bob Waite is the editor of Bucks County Magazine.