Victor Richardson
Victor Richardson was born in Belfast in 1952. He moved to County Cork in 1974 where he has lived for most of the last 30 years except for a few years in England and France. He has worked as a professional painter since 1980, exhibiting widely in Ireland, Britain and the U.S.A.
Obvious influences in his paintings were the works of Seurat, Bonnard and Klimt, but over time he has adapted elements of Impressionism and Pointillism to develop his own distinctive style which manifests a fresh and vivid approach to traditional imagery.
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For most of his career Richardson has worked in soft pastel. Pastel is often confused with chalk, but whereas the latter is merely limestone and dye, pastel is actually dry powdered pigment moulded into a crayon with binding solution. The word pastel is actually derived from the "paste" made by grinding the pigment and binder together. Pastel is as close as an artist can come to painting with pure colour and there is no cracking or discolouring with age, as is evident with many oil paintings. In recent years he has returned to oil painting and now exhibits both pastels and oils in his current solo shows.
Artist Statement:
“I have always been drawn to the possibilities of light, texture, colour and design afforded by trees and water, often the raw materials of my landscapes, be they in Ireland, France or America. Over the years, I have developed my own distinctive approach to landscape, interpreting it in the impressionist spirit but with a modern style. My world is not as it truly is, but how it ought to be. Perhaps I try to speak not so much to the mind, but to the heart, for surely reflection and beauty have more to do with sensitivity than with intelligence."