True to Form

Janet Rickus imbues her collections of simple, beautiful objects with subtle nuances of human connection.

By John O'hern

The Egyptians depicted funerary paintings of food in the 15th century BCE. The Greeks created paintings and mosaics of food and daily objects to delight their guests. The tradition of still life painting reached a height in the Dutch Golden Age between 1575 and 1675, with extraordinarily realistic, dramatic and heavily symbolic paintings of abundance. Among them, vanitas paintings contained a skull alluding to the ephemeral nature of existence.

A Gift from SE Asia, 2023, oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in. Private Collection. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.The tradition of still lifes continues today, unburdened of universally accepted symbolism and open to the visceral inspiration of artists that resonates on a more personal level with the viewer. Janet Rickus carries on the tradition, painting in the quiet solitude and north light of her studio in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. On inclement days, she can be seen in the produce department of the local grocery carefully choosing the most perfect fruits and vegetables for her compositions. When she visits her friends, she often asks if she can borrow a piece of pottery or a pristine tablecloth that is just right. “People don’t like to look at things that are scarred and dented,” she explains.

Plums and Cherries, oil on canvas, 12 x16 in. Private Collection. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

The Bean Pot, 2024, oil on canvas, 15 x 24 in. Private Collection. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

She admires the “peaceful and calm colors” in the still lifes of early 20th-century master Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) who said, “I am essentially a painter of the kind of still life composition that communicates a sense of tranquility and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all else.”

In her own work, Rickus’ awareness and use of color has grown along with her skill—which allows her to create subtle variations in the color of her objects as the soft light enters from the right and recedes to the left. Left and right are important elements in her compositions. A shelf appears low in the horizontal compositions, often draped in one or several tablecloths. She carefully measures the same distance from the left and right edges of the canvas and makes a mark. She begins her arrangement of objects at the left mark and works toward the right. She paints left to right in the same manner. The negative space at the top and bottom of the compositions are almost aways equal. The arrangement of crockery, fruits and vegetables relates to color and form and, from time to time, emulates human relationships: touching, barely touching, leaning.

Squashed Squash VIII, 1994, oil on canvas, 33 x 55 in. Private Collection. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

The objects are painted life size. She explains, “I feel for me to truly represent them, they have to be their actual size. The pottery pieces are similar but different. As I think about where they will go in the composition, I think about all the people who have been touching them and using them over the years. I think ‘that was my grandmother’s pot’ or ‘I got this in Maine when I was on vacation.’ I like to use borrowed or old pieces. It’s like borrowing a memory. People looking at a painting bring their own stories to them.”

Four Sugar Bowls, 2025, oil on canvas 12 x 18 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

Lou Friedman is co-owner, with his sister Paula Bernay, of Bernay Fine Art in Great Barrington. One of his favorite paintings of Rickus’ is Plums and Cherries. He relates, “Besides it being a beautiful painting, the story behind its sale is an important one in the gallery’s history. It was right in the middle of Covid and the gallery was struggling mightily to stay afloat. We had one advantage and it was that we were open and the New York galleries were closed. I got a call from a woman who wanted to see Janet’s work and we ended up doing a FaceTime tour of the gallery. She was in New York City and could not drive up to see the paintings in person. She was obsessed with Plums and Cherries and finally I asked, ‘what is it about the painting that makes it so special?’ She replied that her first job out of school was with Williams and Sonoma, she was a linen buyer and the linen in Plums and Cherries was so special she had to have the painting.

Made in Mexico, 2018, oil on canvas 18 x 24 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

Goldens Rule, 2022, oil on canvas, 16 x 24 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

“After a month or so, Covid eased up enough for me to deliver the painting,” Friedman continues. “It was one of our first deliveries. I unwrapped the painting in her white kitchen and the painting glowed, radiating colors within the sun-filled room. I will always remember the look of joy on the client’s face. She turned around and took another painting off the wall and hung Janet’s painting there. I learned that day of the joy a piece of artwork can bring, especially in the extraordinary times the world was facing then.”

Yukon Gold Potatoes, 2024, oil on canvas 14 x 22 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

Another favorite painting of Friedman’s is Goldens Rule. “To my amazement, this painting remains available,” he says. “It is the perfect example of Janet’s work; the fruit and ceramics carefully set, a perfect scene, never from a photograph. Countless people enter the gallery and stare at this painting and say, ‘You know, I don’t normally gravitate toward still lifes but this, I love.’ Janet’s ability to give her fruit and ceramics humanlike relationships is special.”

Mandarin and Three Bowls, 2023, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

I sometimes get too analytical when looking at a painting. Rather than enjoying Goldens Rule itself and admiring the bit of blue fabric that peeks out beneath the white tablecloth, offering what Rickus describes as a “a teeny bit of tension,” I began wondering: “What could the golden delicious apples mean? Is she referring to the golden ratio or, somehow, to the golden rule of ‘do unto others?’”

Daybreak, 2025, oil on canvas 14 x 18 in. Courtesy Bernay Fine Art, Great Barrington, MA.

I went further afield looking at The Bean Pot. After admiring the subtleties of the shadows and highlights on the vessels and the limes, as well as the gradation of light in the background, I began thinking too much. Ah, the green pot relates to the green limes, then comes a neutral pitcher and sugar bowl above a white tablecloth. But, then, there are yellow bowls over a blue tablecloth. Well, the combination of yellow and blue makes green which relates back to the pot and the limes. The artist told me that wasn’t her intention at all.

Setting up the still lifes is an intuitive and arduous process for Rickus. “There is an excitement when it’s all set up,” she says. “It’s the high point of the process. I rarely change anything, although there’s always little bit of doubt.” —