Richard Cartwright

“I work after midnight. There are fewer distractions...and I think you can be more daring”

Richard Cartwright makes paintings that explore a world conjured from the mind’s eye that is both dreamlike and disarmingly real. Here is a sensual world, with elements of theatre, an undercurrent of vulnerability and universal truths, wrought gently without bombast or pretension. His work is insightful and mysterious but never wilfully obscure or contrived.

 Richard’s landscapes can seem huge and unknowable, sometimes embracing and sometimes brooding. Within them, human figures are tiny but not lost. They often seem to possess direction or purpose, even if guided by nothing more than fate. In his more intimate interior landscapes with figures, the same unalloyed sense of mystery pervades, but the viewer is drawn closer into the waking dream: always invited, never confronted.

 Explore these works and you will find beauty. From shadows and light. In solitude and communion. Reflecting life’s bittersweet journey.

Richard completed a fine art foundation course in 1970 before leaving to pursue his own education. Since 1983 he has lived and painted in Bristol, which still provides a rich source of inspiration for his work.