SOUND A N D
VISION
Paintings by Richard J S Young Quercus Gallery, Bath
RICHARD J S YOUNG
This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition “Sound and Vision: Paintings by Richard J S Young” curated by Quercus Gallery on view at Gascoyne Place Restaurant, 1 Saw Close, Bath, BA1 1EY from 16 May - 30 August 2015.
Curator and Director Evie Williams Catalogue Design and Text Yasmin Namdjou Cover image: Italian Hot Fields, 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 70 cm.
Delhi Landscape, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 70 cm
Just Colour and Shape, 2013 Oil on canvas 80 x 125 cm
For me, my more interesting images are those that are cerebral and require some interpretation on the part of the viewer. Certainly, my exhibition pieces are like that. I am primarily a figurative artist, I enjoy drawing and painting the figure.
I Thank Euan for His Orange II, 2008 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm
Angel of the North Again, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 40 cm
His Face Was Painted Once but Now Defaced, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 70 cm
At a Certain Moment, 2013 Oil on canvas 80 x 125 cm
Original Dreamtime, 2013 Oil on canvas 70 x 90 cm
He Thought She Was Doris Day She Thought, 1998-2002 Oil on canvas 120 x 158 cm
Two Souls, 2013 Pen and ink on paper 20 x 30 cm
Four Tet: Ribbons, 2013 Watercolour on paper 30 x 18 cm
She Moves She, 2014 Watercolour and pastel on paper 30 x 40 cm
Ha, I Remember, 2014 Watercolour on paper 20 x 30 cm
Opposite: None Sense, 2013
Mixed media on paper 30 x 40 cm
PAST EXHIBITIONS
2015 2015 2015 2014 2013 2013 2009 2008 2006 2006 2004 2004 2003 1997 1996 1996 1995 1994-00 1994 1993 1988-92 1983 1983 1978 1978
Sound and Vision, Quercus Gallery Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Gallery, Bath BS9 Arts Trail, northwest Bristol BS9 Arts Trail, northwest Bristol Royal West of England Academy – Autumn Exhibition Slade, UCL - Art in Contemporary Practice, London Wheatsheaf, Coombe Hay Royal West of England Academy – Sollus & Dullis Centrespace Gallery, Bristol Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Gallery, Bath Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Gallery, Bath Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath Anthony Hepworth Gallery, Bath Royal West of England Academy – Autumn Exhibition Eight Bell’s Gallery, One man show Royal West of England Academy – Autumn Exhibition Royal West of England Academy – Autumn Exhibition Eight Bell’s Gallery, Tetbury. Solo exhibition. Kings Arms Didmarton, England Kingsley Galleries, Bath Private commission work (Switzerland) Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Piccadilly, London Reading Gallery, Reading, England 3 commissions from the University of Kent Solo exhibition, University of Kent
paintings of Richard J S Young. They are actions that abridge to make one component that summarises how Young operates as an artist - where the process of painting is as vital as its final outcome. Using music as inspiration, Richard ritualistically paints to the rhythmic, pulsating and often ambient tones of contemporary electronic music or experimental rock. He often names his paintings as whatever various song title or musician that may have inspired its creation at that given moment. A follower of a vast array of alternative and fringe music ranging from the earlier works of David Bowie to Four Tet, Young uses the dynamicity of this music to create his characteristically colourful and energetic paintings. Born in the leafy suburbs of Woking, Surrey in 1954, Richard’s family immigrated to Australia a year later where they settled near Adelaide, and then in Woomera in South Australia. It was in Australia that Richard first began to discover his passion for the arts. Living in Woomera’s arid and dry landscape, Richard became fascinated in colour and abstraction, using the library as his inspiration. He revelled in books displaying the paintings of Impressionist artists, particularly the works of Cézanne and Matisse whose works offered a vibrant contrast to the landscape that surrounded him at the time. Young was particularly drawn by Turner’s earlier landscapes and the pastiches that followed them, in particular the works of Mark Rothko. These influences stayed with Young throughout his life and career and he often consults the same books as a source of continual inspiration.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sound and Vision are two words that aptly characterise the
Richard obtained a PhD in Chemical Physics at the University of Kent in Canterbury and has spent his life building a reputable career working in the field of solar energy. Young has stated that he had “chose to join his interests in art and science...I was inspired as a teenager by Leonardo Di Vinci who as a Renaissance man joined art and the sciences and pioneered many of the techniques of art and technology”. Richard manifested this grouping by designing pigments for ceramic glazes and also inks for screen printed electronic applications. Richard J S Young’s artistic process indicates an artist who reflects the currents and motions of the outside world. His influences are diverse, extending to music, the figure, the sea and the desert. Current influences are drawn from the abstract expressionist works of Richard Diebenkorn, but greatly from Scottish artist Barbara Rae, whose ‘intense colour bursts that evoke dramatic landscapes but remain resolutely abstract’ [RA Magazine, 2014], much in the same character of Young’s works exhibited in this collection.
I enjoy colour and making marks. My drawings and watercolour paintings are explorations of how the paint or pencil interact with the paper...For me, my more interesting images are those that are cerebral and require some interpretation on the part of the viewer. Certainly, my exhibition pieces are like that. I am primarily a figurative artist, I enjoy drawing and painting the figure.
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