“These are pictures of paintings. I’m not ashamed (but I am post-modern)”. Read comments posted by Richard van der Aa is a Facebook thread from 2014. If you’re intensely invested in “picturing paintings” and understand the context of non-objective art, you know the shame to which Richard speaks. But for anyone who has seen Richard’s work, you know the comment is more than a bit superfluous. You can plainly see how boldly (and without shame), Richard pursues his picturing in each painting object he puts forth. This boldness is achieved with a Matisse-like lightness of touch. The objects are allowed “to be”, on the floor or on the wall with their “there-ness” un-muddled by an artist playing the role of fussy helicopter parent. Rarely does Richard seem bothered by the bugaboo of many, “Have I done enough?” Further evidence of this are his Easy Pieces, his series of perfectly found objects where Richard’s artistic act becomes one of recognition and selection. And like all of Richard’s work they are wonderful in their pristine recognition of beauty.