At a quick glance, the distinctive paintings by Robert Pace Kidd appear to be uniquely rich, earthy oils. Moving closer, you are amazed at the three-dimensional quality. On yet closer inspection, you realize the rich bronze color is created by leather. The oil painting has somehow been melded with a three-dimensional sculpture made of leather. The resulting work of art has the substance and glow of a bronze and the handsome coloration found in oils.

R.P. Kidd created this art form that he has named Bas-Relief in Leather. A bas-relief sculpture is when the figure protrudes from the background. Sculpture evolved from carving stone, wood or ivory, but looking for something to distinguish his portraiture from others, Kidd turned to sculpting leather. R.P. Kidd's father, George Dunlap Kidd, was an accomplished saddler and gunsmith and taught his son the use of traditional methods of leather craftsmen.

To create a Bas-Relief in Leather, Kidd sculpts each square inch of a carefully selected steer hide. He uses traditional saddlery tools and implements of his own creation. With forceful blows of a rawhide mallet, ten square inches of relief can take hours of physical labor. This technique of carving compresses the leather, allowing the sculpture to emerge from the background.

When the carving is finished, the painting begins. To paint on leather, Kidd developed his own process which required years of research and resulted in the invention of an encaustic process. Encaustic process is the mixing of pigments with molten beeswax. It is one of the oldest formal methods of easel and mural painting. Examples of the technique survive today and are still brilliant after fifteen centuries.

A lost art in the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the encaustic process was revived through literary and laboratory research during the 18th and 19th centuries by artists searching for a highly enduring medium. They used a hot wax process as they found little reference in Greek history to a cold wax process.

Kidd became intrigued with the possibility of a cold wax process. He experimented with a variety of waxes and oil pigments and developed his own workable cold wax method that is compatible with leather. Suspending fine art oil pigments in a prepared wax, he applies a succession of transparent glazes to the leather sculpture. The leather's natural color is allowed to emerge as highlights. The encaustic wax painting process preserves the leather, sealing it against dust and moisture and will last for centuries.

Kidd's commissions, especially portraits, take up a considerable amount of his time. He has completed portraits of John Wayne for the Republican National Committee, the famed western artist Charley Russell, commissioned by the Russell family, and actor Jim Davis, commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Hagmen. Kidd is also an artist in other media including pen and ink, oil and watercolor.

He was recently commissioned to execute a major group of portraits and ranch scenes based on three generations of photos from the archives of historical Rancho Mission Viejo near San Juan Capistrano, California. His Bas-Relief in Leather and hand colorized pen and inks depicting horses, riders and western scenes are available through several galleries. R.P. Kidd feels that the horse and the horseman share an inseparable bond that exhibits a color and character in life worthy of art.

R.P. Kidd is represent by Creekside Galleries in Park City, Utah, and Scottsdale, Arizona; Tearbrush Gallery in Vail, Colorado; The Old Indian Gallery in El Cajon, California; and Galleria Santini is Rosarito, Baja Mexico. Visit his web site at www.robertpacekidd.com.