Paul Richards
Stephanie, 2019
Pastel on watercolour paper
24 3/8 x 19 7/8 in, 62 x 50.5 cm
Throughout his distinguished career Richards has developed a highly personal style of portraiture which delves deep into the psyche of both his animate and inanimate sitters. In this latest body...
Throughout his distinguished career Richards has developed a highly personal style of portraiture which delves deep into the psyche of both his animate and inanimate sitters. In this latest body of works, and his first exhibition of pastels, Richards presents a collection of people and objects that he wishes to take with him to the next life.
Richards creates works that are simultaneously truthful and subjective, depicting what is before him with physical accuracy while exposing their personality as he sees it, seeking to express something beyond physical appearance. His sitters are never posed, instead either subconsciously, or not, they decide how to be presented. These investigative drawings reveal the emotional connection between himself and his sitter, focusing on the head and more specifically the eyes and nose. The movement between the eyes, nose and mouth is crucial to his work with the slightest nuances revealing something deeper about his sitter.
The Spanish Golden Age painter Zurbarán influenced Richards in this portrait of Stephanie. The dark brown background, perfect composure and clasped hands are akin to Zurbarán’s paintings of St Francis in meditation. Richards takes the sense of calm and self control from Zurbarán’s depiction of the saint, but twists it, for instead of carrying a rosary Stephanie holds a necklace. The shadows that cut across the background of the work add drama while Stephanie remains serene.
Only after creating studies in oil and terracotta does Richards begin his pastel drawings. Richards sees his terracottas as thoughts and a means of finding the person. Like in his oil paintings, with these pastel works he uses readymade colours allowing himself to own both the colours and the surface they are on. The seeming fragility of the pastel gives the impression that the image could blow away, much like the transience of life.
Richards has had an acclaimed career as a founding member of the Nice Style group with Bruce McLean, exhibiting at Tate and the Henry Moore Institute, works in the Arts Council collection and being a highly influential tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art with pupils including Cecily Brown. Richards joins a long list of acclaimed artists who have taught at Slade School of Fine Art including Lucian Freud, Euan Uglow and Frank Auerbach and has similarly developed a distinctive style in which to explore the body and still lifes.
Richards creates works that are simultaneously truthful and subjective, depicting what is before him with physical accuracy while exposing their personality as he sees it, seeking to express something beyond physical appearance. His sitters are never posed, instead either subconsciously, or not, they decide how to be presented. These investigative drawings reveal the emotional connection between himself and his sitter, focusing on the head and more specifically the eyes and nose. The movement between the eyes, nose and mouth is crucial to his work with the slightest nuances revealing something deeper about his sitter.
The Spanish Golden Age painter Zurbarán influenced Richards in this portrait of Stephanie. The dark brown background, perfect composure and clasped hands are akin to Zurbarán’s paintings of St Francis in meditation. Richards takes the sense of calm and self control from Zurbarán’s depiction of the saint, but twists it, for instead of carrying a rosary Stephanie holds a necklace. The shadows that cut across the background of the work add drama while Stephanie remains serene.
Only after creating studies in oil and terracotta does Richards begin his pastel drawings. Richards sees his terracottas as thoughts and a means of finding the person. Like in his oil paintings, with these pastel works he uses readymade colours allowing himself to own both the colours and the surface they are on. The seeming fragility of the pastel gives the impression that the image could blow away, much like the transience of life.
Richards has had an acclaimed career as a founding member of the Nice Style group with Bruce McLean, exhibiting at Tate and the Henry Moore Institute, works in the Arts Council collection and being a highly influential tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art with pupils including Cecily Brown. Richards joins a long list of acclaimed artists who have taught at Slade School of Fine Art including Lucian Freud, Euan Uglow and Frank Auerbach and has similarly developed a distinctive style in which to explore the body and still lifes.