Richard Straley

Artist Statement

I have always been intrigued by the complex being made simple. Lines, edges, shapes, marks, mounds and paths all combine in landscape to give the feeling of age and as evidence of mans passage through life. Age and the endless cycles of Birth, Growth and profoundly affect me and it this feeling together with the sense of 'place' and 'belonging' that I wish to bring to my painting.
All my images are taken from the area where I live in the western part of the UK known as The Cotswolds. An intimate, confined, close and beautiful area of fields, trees, small villages, wonderful people and great pubs.

After 26 years lecturing in Art colleges throughout the UK I have taken premature retirement to concentrate on painting, living, bringing up my family and growing old with grace and dignity.
Hooray for the teachers pension scheme!

My work is enlivened by the poetry of T.S.Eliot and the paintings of Cecil Collins, Samuel Palmer, Emile Nolde and Mark Rothko