by Nancy E. McCarthy
Fine artist Richell Castellón has lived in Syracuse for a decade. Moving to the United States from his native country of Cuba offered more promising opportunities and the artistic freedom Castellón yearned for. It motivated him to build a regional reputation. Now he’s trending national.
Castellón paints a wide range of subjects but is best known for his evocative cityscapes and colorful still life and bird paintings. Galleries in five different states carry Castellón’s extraordinary artwork. In the Finger Lakes Region, he’s represented by West End Gallery in Corning. When Castellón submitted an artist application three years ago, the gallery wasn’t actively seeking new artists. “I opened the application and as soon as I saw images of his artwork my jaw dropped,” said Jesse Gardner, owner/director.
Gardner was particularly impressed with the artist’s cityscapes. Castellón approaches this subject with an impressionistic style using two distinct color palettes: dramatic monochromatic tones of black, gray and white or an intentional selection of vivid, pulsating colors. Either way, each one evokes a strong sense of place – whether it’s a scene from Syracuse, New York City or Cuba.
“There’s a vibrancy and energy that can be found in all of Richell’s artwork,” said Gardner. “When viewing his New York City paintings, you can feel the energy of the city. He captures its very essence through his spontaneous, yet deliberate, brush strokes. You can see, and even feel, the movement and atmosphere in his city scenes.”
It was a bold decision for Castellón to re-establish a career as a professional artist and rebuild his life in a new country. “I admire Richell’s courage in doing both,” Gardner said.
A natural born artist
Castellón, born in 1985, grew up with his sister in the province of Cienfuegos. He loved to draw from an early age. His father Victor, his first artistic influence, was a mechanical draftsman. His hand drawn technical drawings and precise designs were used to build molds for casting metal machine parts.
Both parents supported their son’s interest in art. At 14, his father took Castellón to the city’s cultural center for drawing and painting courses. After Castellón finished secondary school at age 15, he attended an art instructor school for four years (and proudly won the Best Art Student of the Year award in 2004). The Cuban school system is different than the U.S. College and trade schools are tuition-free, but graduates re-pay their state-funded higher education through a time period of mandatory social service in their chosen field. Castellón’s service was teaching art to primary school children. On weekends he pursued a bachelor’s degree, studying a variety of media: oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolor plus pottery, wood carving and sculpture. Castellón also exhibited and sold his paintings.
Castellón liked teaching, but he was passionate about his own art-making. In 2012 he moved to the Matanzas Province and rented a booth near the beach in the popular resort town of Varadero. He painted live full-time and sold his artwork to tourists. He used fast-drying acrylics so he could complete and sell paintings quickly. Castellón spoke some English but learned more from conversing with his customers.
The American dream
Artistic expression is tightly controlled in Cuba: Artists and their work are subject to censorship. “Pretty much my whole life, my journey, has been a war for survival trying to do something relevant and make a living,” said Castellón. In 2016, Castellón made the momentous decision to move to the U.S. He chose Syracuse, an unfamiliar city, because he had an uncle living there.
Castellón had to start his art career over and attract a whole new audience. He switched up his cityscape subjects to some familiar urban landscapes of Syracuse and NYC. By 2020, Castellón was selling his work online and methodically researching and connecting with galleries. He sent artist applications all over the country. It was like making cold calls, a sales strategy of contacting potential customers with no prior interaction with your business. It’s not for the faint hearted. Typically dozens and dozens of cold calls will land just one solid sale.
Castellón can’t count how many applications he sent out, but it resulted in seven galleries impressed enough with his growing body of work to represent him. A few years later, he’s now affiliated with galleries in New York, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and California.
There were other milestones. Lake Affect Magazine and City Journal reached out to request Castellón’s artwork for their covers in 2023 and 2024 respectively. He entered his paintings in art shows and exhibits. An early career highlight was in 2018. One of his Cuban cityscapes won the Member’s Choice Award at the Annual Members Exhibition at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo).
“The Member’s Choice is a long tradition at RoCo where we ask our community of members to vote for their favorite artwork. It has become quite an honor to win that award in particular,” said Bleu Cease, RoCo’s executive director/curator. “That painting clearly touched a lot of people.”
His cityscapes also touched Ron Mancini and his wife. It was 2024 when the Mancinis, then living in Baldwinsville, stumbled across a display of Castellón’s paintings at West End Gallery. They were actually browsing for a waterfall landscape.
“Even though we weren’t looking for a city view, Richell’s painting stopped us in our tracks,” said Mancini. “His NYC paintings make you feel like you have stepped onto the streets of NYC. You can almost hear the sounds, smell the fragrance and feel the air of the city. He found a way to tap into all your senses through the visual cues provided in his paintings.”
They did find their waterfall (a Judy Soprano landscape), but the couple also bought five Castellón paintings. “The funny part is we drove two hours away to visit West End Gallery in Corning where we purchased our paintings when Richell lived 20 minutes from our place,” said Mancini. The couple later visited with Castellón and enjoyed getting to know him.
Evolving
It would be easy to label Castellón as an impressionistic painter. However, his style, always evolving, varies depending on the subject. His vibrant bird series, typically smaller works, are realistic and detailed. His still life works straddle impressionism and realism with a dash of the abstract. “I don’t worry about the style,” he said.
Castellón is an American citizen now, and he’s come a long way from his lean early years in Syracuse. When he first arrived, he worked side jobs to support himself. Now Castellón is a full-time artist with a growing reputation and burgeoning following. He’s even adjusted to the long snowy winters. Snug in his apartment, it’s an easy indoor “commute” to his living room/studio. Castellón paints nearly every day and still uses acrylics. The artist is so prolific that he stopped giving titles to his paintings in 2023 and assigns a number instead. He’s into the 300s in his NYC cityscape series.
“I am just grateful for living here, being free and honored simply by the people who admire my work and feel the same connection I feel with the art,” he said.
NYC 225, 36×20 canvas
The Artist Process
Castellón is captivated by iconic New York City street scenes and the endless possibilities that painting them presents. It’s a subject he returns to often. Castellón begins a new cityscape by perusing reference photos (from the internet or his own images).
Starting with an inspiration photo, he considers adding more embellishments such as lights, signs and pedestrians, transforming some cars or making buildings taller. He identifies these elements from other photos and thinks about how he might integrate them.
The artist establishes a clear and cohesive composition in his mind before he chooses colors and begins painting. Lately, he’s been leaning more toward the monochrome palette of black and white. “I enjoy doing the monochromatic because colors sometimes distract the viewers from what I consider most important: the atmosphere of the NYC scene,” said Castellón.
For his monochrome cityscapes, he uses just two colors: Payne’s Gray (a deep, cool-toned mixture of dark blue-gray of Ultramarine Blue and Carbon Black) and Titan Buff (a pale almond-ivory hue). Both are acrylic paints manufactured by Golden. He pre-mixes these colors together to create six different variations of dark to light.
Castellón primes his canvas with a medium gray tone and then paints his imagined scene directly onto the canvas. His approach is loose and improvisational, and he works quickly. However, Castellón typically stops before finishing the painting so he can go back to it later with fresh eyes. Then he refines the final details.
Learn more about the artist at richellart.com. Purchase online at dailypaintworks.com. View/purchase paintings in person at West End Gallery, Corning. Follow Castellón on Instagram @richell_art.
