Ramon Rice Ramon Rice was a man of extensive abilities yet simple tastes who lived almost a monastic life in Santa Fe where he spent his last years. His legacy includes the portraits of the people of Old Mexico and the countryside. Adopting the southwest, he added Native American and New Mexico imagery to his repertoire. Born September 4, 1928 he died in 1986. Rice grew up in the deep Oregon woods where he learned to commune with nature, beauty and God. We see these characteristics in his beautiful faces. He exhibited his paintings throughout Southern California, New Mexico and other parts of the West. A man of endless talents, he made and designed furniture, interiors, made violins and sung opera. Ramon possesed two master degrees, one in philosophy and one in religion. He loved to lecture philosophy with his cronies, but mostly he lived “to paint the soul of human beings.”