The Ever-Changing Art of Ron Weathers
Chapin resident Ron Weathers started painting when he was in middle school. To see his work today one would think he never stopped, but that is not the case. Initially given paint-by-number kits by his parents to help pass the time when he was home from school with asthma, Ron used the sets not realizing they were, essentially, his first art teacher. He later took art classes in both middle and high school, but didn’t have time to paint thereafter. It wasn’t until after he married, had children, and was running his own contracting business that he started to regularly paint again. That was more than 30 years ago.
Today, Ron’s art is a far cry from any, completed paint-by-number project. The exceptional artwork defies classification. His works are both abstract and representational; in oil and watercolors, vivid and subdued, familiar yet unique. Ron’s utilizes different underpaintings; each piece showcases unique color palettes, and his art is created with both brushes and palette knives. His art features widely varied subject matter and some pieces even have differing signatures. The only thing that all of Ron Weathers’ art works have in common is Ron Weathers himself.
Maybe the diversity in his art exists because he is not so concerned with selling his work as he is bringing himself happiness throughout the creative process. “Painting gives me great joy and it allows me to express myself and gives me a sense of accomplishment,” he explains. “I can go to my studio and paint, and everything just kind of fades out, so I’m just, you know, in a zone. At peace.” While the act of painting is a stress reliever, the artworks themselves also serve a purpose, acting as a visual record of his life: tracking where he’s been, what was and is attractive to him, and pointing to what is most important to him: “to the One who gives [his] life meaning… the Great Creator.”
Perhaps what makes painting so joyful for Ron is that he isn’t interested in practicing a single technique to perfection. Rather, he likes to experiment and play with a variety of techniques and color, learning along the way. He enjoys the challenge of using as much color as possible in pieces that a layman might see as a monochromatic. This is showcased in one of his pieces that feature a flock of seagulls on the beach. The average person likely imagines a flock of seagulls and thinks: white with a touch of black. But Ron’s painting uses muted greens, blues, pinks and purples.
Over the years, Ron started with watercolors and switched to oil paints. Style wise, he’s moving toward expressionism. (He says he wants to learn expressionism, but his work indicates he knows quite a bit already.) In one of Ron’s pieces, a crowd on a beach splash at the edge of the water, but when the viewer looks closely, they realize that the figures aren’t people at all – just swathes of color placed directionally to imply the idea of a person. As I study his work up close, I am left marveling at not only Ron’s artistic hand, but at the human brain and its ability to swiftly and easily fill in the blanks, converting the tiniest, abstract dabs of paint into people. My mind immediately and clearly “sees”: there’s a woman. She’s sitting at the edge of the water… there are several more people in the ocean...
Any painter needs to stand near their canvas to paint. Somehow, Ron knows that these swathes of paint will ultimately look like a woman sitting near the surf.
Ron achieves this effect in part, through practice and speed: working swiftly instead of carefully, though he’s ever-mindful of light and shadow in each piece. Throughout his process, Ron walks back and forth on a “runway” in his studio as he paints. He walks several feet away from his work to study it, then walks back to his painting and add more paint, repeating the process continuously. This keeps him from getting too engrossed in minor details. (There was once a time when Ron worked slowly and methodically, painting every blade of grass individually and ensuring perfection, but he soon learned not to waste so much time on one piece. “If a painting is not working, I just want to move on to the next one.”)
Another characteristic that sets Ron’s art apart is that he doesn’t varnish his paintings when they are finished, as many artists do. He does not care for the shine of varnish, believing it to detract from the finished product. Too much shine is one of several reasons he swapped mediums from watercolors to oil paints. When framing a watercolor, glass is typically placed top of the work, which can (if it’s not specifically anti-glare glass) distract the viewer with a reflection. Oil paintings don’t need this glass. While Ron admits that a lack of varnish may ultimately affect the lifespan of a piece, that is his artistic decision.
Inspiration is literally everywhere for this artist, mostly because he is everywhere as well. Ron’s many travels and our local surroundings serve as fodder for his work, which is another reason for the variance among his enormous collection. He paints en plein air (outdoors, in a brief session) as well as from photographs. “I enjoy capturing the essence of marshes of the low country, the street scenes of bustling cities, the serenity of old barns of the country sides, and the manmade structures of boats and architecture.” In his gallery, Weathers Art in West Columbia, one sees paintings of Times Square and the Flat Iron building in New York, a boat in Key West, a Charleston marsh, little brightly colored houses in Turks and Caicos, a lavender field in Tuscany, a light house in North Carolina... In spite of the great variance in subject and style there are a few consistencies. “I try to entertain the viewer with color… I strive to produce paintings with contrast of light and dark. A focus of light and shadows are always prevalent in my work,” Ron explains.
Before he retired, Ron worked in contracting and architecture. Today, his company, Weathers Contracting, still does both. In comparing creating art and building a structure, he notes that art and construction both require him to start with a literal or metaphorical blank canvas. “It’s just a building process for both of them,” Ron responds humbly. “Both have several layers that have to be placed. Both are creative.” (But if it were really that simple, wouldn’t all contractors be called to paint?)
Looking forward, Ron hopes to both take and perhaps teach some painting workshops, and of course, he plans to continue to paint on his own. As a member of Crooked Creek Art League and a winner of many of the League’s and other awards, he looks forward to the 2025-26 season. He also plans to have a show at his gallery in January. Whatever Ron does, and where ever he goes, the walls that bear the fruits of his labor will surely be colorful and captivating.
To view and purchase Ron’s artwork, go to ronweathers.com
Come and see Ron's next show
Saturday, January 17, 2026
3pm – 7pm
Weathers Art Studio
2543 Morningside Drive, West Columbia
You can expect light bites, drinks, and a very colorful crowd.
