Richard Harrison
BA, MA Fine Art

Richard Harrison’s paintings are awesome in scale; rich in colour and texture, the content exaggerated by the dynamic and energetic handling of capacious layers of paint skilfully manipulated to create a dynamic expression of form and colour. His paintings are most certainly contemporary, skilled and individual in their style.

Describing himself as a Romantic Expressionist gives some clue to an understanding of his subject and manner of painting. Having read Medieval History at Cambridge he is well versed with the medieval mindset of good, evil, plague, pestilence and Armageddon, set within a context of the age of chivalry and religious dominance wherein the brave and valiant strive to overcome the forces of dark and evil.

These universal themes of myth, legend and testament have been captured by artists since the Renaissance. In Harrison’s opinion, they are equally relevant today and form the basis of his personal view of Romanticism involving a tendency to express ideas which have a verbal rather than visual origin.

Richard has the unique ability to arouse emotions in the viewer. Be it by portraying agonising convoluted figures in a given situation or narrative or by the representation of natural phenomena usually in turmoil using his preferred combination of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ colours to evoke anger or joy and calmness or tranquillity.