Hanging Stone

Richard reworked a number of paintings from time to time. He sometimes dated them as of the last time he changed them and sometimes and gave them multiple dates such as Northern Landscape (1947/68/75).

'Hanging Stone' has a similar feel as another picture The Cow of The Cow and Calf Rocks, Ilkley painted in 1968. Both are the product of his remarkable visual memory, though this one is more of a fantasy. It includes many of the familiar images that occur throughout his work, such as reclining figures, a fire, and cascading water, but the painting of rocks is amazing, and straight from his memory of moving from Bradford and its streets, to the wildness of Ilkley, and the rocks and moors.

His Mother had recurrent bouts of tuberculosis, and so the move was considered best for her health, but it took a while for Richard to feel positive about the change. Here, years later, he has responded imaginatively, feeling the oppressive weight of the rocks, the escape from the distant city, and the time to gather with one’s friends, small, in this secret place. It is not a comfortable painting. The colours and tones are low and dark. The bare tree on the right is like some threatening creature, and the sky suggests the sun has set, and night is not far off. As I look at the picture, I can see “faces” in the rocks, just as one sees faces in damp patches on ceilings and walls. I enter the dream.