Richard has been drawing and painting almost since he was able to hold a pencil. His family background is full of artistic and engineering talent, and it was with the help of his artistically gifted Aunt that Richard first became engrossed with the world of painting.
Richard remains largely self-taught; he was regarded as gifted art student at school but was encouraged by his parents to train for a ‘proper job’ and subsequently followed a career in engineering. The artistic ambitions remained but purely on a spare time basis. From the age of around ten, Richard started taking an interest in motor racing and aviation and following visits to air shows and motor racing events and it was inevitable that this interest would be transferred into his early drawing and painting efforts. Much later it was undoubtedly the combination of Richard’s engineering and artistic talents that were to prove pivotal in his artistic career. Today his paintings have become much admired for their high level of accuracy and meticulously researched technical and historical details.
Richards first public art display was at an enthusiast gathering at the historic site of Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey in 1983. Encouraged by the success of this first show he repeated his displays at the event for several years. Since those early showings he has exhibited at many prestigious venues, from specialist London galleries to a restaurant in Monaco and an exhibition of auto art in Connecticut USA.
Richard has become very much part of the motoring art establishment, his work is regularly featured in group art shows at well-known motor sporting venues such as Silverstone and Goodwood, after now thirty years in the business Richards work now graces many private collections worldwide. During his painting career much of his work has been directed towards the greetings card and jigsaw puzzle business, as well as illustrating four book jackets. Although he prefers to concentrate on producing and displaying original work, Richard does have a small range of prints available, together with an ever expanding range of greetings cards
Over the last thirty years aviation has featured in much of Richard’s work, vintage aircraft and vintage motoring always seem to sit well on a canvas together and there is certainly a great deal of interest in both subjects worldwide. His first aviation commission came in 1993 when he was asked to produce paintings of six classic commercial aircraft for a trade calendar. Currently Richard divides this painting output equally between both motoring and aviation subjects, exhibiting at both major historic motor sporting events as well as local air shows. It is only fairly recently that Richard has found the available time to become involved in the Guild of Aviation Artists, joining as a ‘friend’ member in 2010. In 2013 Richard was promoted to ‘Associate Membership’, to date, all his work has been accepted for the GAVA exhibitions that he has entered and he has won the ‘unjuried show’ award for ‘friend’ members at Guild AGM meetings on two occasions. Richard enjoys the benefits of his guild membership, regularly sketching and painting at UK aviation venues, more recently he has been asked to help with revues and critiques at these meetings.
In 2013 Richard was accepted as a ‘foreign affiliate’ member of the American Society of Aviation Artists, and successfully exhibited with them for the first time in 2014 at San Diego, picking up a couple of prestigious awards at the show. Further success with the ASAA has followed in 2015, Richard had two painting accepted for their annual exhibition this time in Savannah, one of his paintings ‘Duxford Cat’ was awarded an ‘Award of Merit’.
Richard often returns to his original love of landscape and architecture for his inspiration often marking a visit to a memorable location by committing a scene to canvas. This diversity is also reflected in the media used in his work Watercolour, Gouache, Acrylic, Oils, Conte-Pastel, Pencil, Ink and wash. Richard is happy to work in all of these and often a combination of several is employed to achieve the desired effect.
Richard is married to Jane and together they have three daughters and two grandchildren, they have lived in Worth, West Sussex since 1983.
Away from the drawing board Richard has many other interests in the world of transport history, he finds time to enjoy his 1935 Singer Le Mans sports car as an active member of the following :-
The Vintage Sports Car Club,
The Historic Sports Car Club
The Friends of Brooklands Museum,
The Transport Trust
Singer Owners Car Club
The Guild of Aviation Artists ‘Associate Member’
The American Society of Aviation Artists ‘Foreign Affiliate Member’
The Guild of Motoring Artists ‘of which he is a founder member’
From time to time Richard is asked to give talks, lectures, critiques and displays to interested groups e.g. motor clubs, art groups, schools and colleges. These lectures can be on both an informative and/or a practical theme and have proved highly popular.
Contact details
Studio - 43 Oakfields, Worth, Crawley, West Sussex. RH10 7FN. England.
Telephone - 01293 885430, ‘daytime contact number 01293 775300’, Fax - 01293 771722,