Gatherings | Crowds | Festivities

Richard was a shy and retiring man, but he recounts in his memoir how the celebrations in his native Bradford spilled out over the streets with huge energy and a certain wildness. He loved to watch them from a safe distance (usually through a window) and his inner being responded to the mood. He loved to observe how the clustering of people and crowds added intensity to a room or landscape.

Cowes Week (1980)

oil on board - 28.5h x 44.5w (cm)

Paint freshly put on and scratched here and there with the end of the brush-handle conveys the sense of the crowds in holiday mood with their picnics on Lepe Beach watching the yacht races in the Solent.

The Procession, Yorkshire (1970)

oil on board - 43h x 98w (cm)

A wonderful panorama drawing on childhood memories safely viewed from a distance. The quiet ancientness of the foreground is a foil to the imagined noise and movement beyond the wall.

Negro Ballet (c1950)

oil on canvas - 51h x 61w (cm)

Possibly more of a Caribbean one? He always was against using photographs as a basis for a painting but in fact did use them on several occasions. This may well be one of them.