Aviation predates Richard’s motor sporting interests by several years. From a young age he was aware of aircraft flying over the family home and the schools he attended. A few miles away was Wisley airfield in Surrey, the test centre for Vickers, later The British Aircraft Corporation. Viscount, Vanguard, VC10 and One Eleven’s were all familiar sights in the sky above as they underwent their exhaustive test programmes. Richard’s father worked in a sub-contacting engineering business making tooling for Vickers and as a family they attended the bi-annual air shows at Farnborough from 1962. Later he would be able to go to Biggin Hill for the ‘Air-fair’ events and watch the aircraft movements at both Heathrow and Gatwick airports from the public spectator areas. 

 

Over the last thirty year’s aviation has featured in much of Richard’s work, vintage aircraft and vintage motoring always seem to sit well on a canvas together and there is certainly a great deal of cross-interest in both subjects worldwide. His first aviation commission came in 1993 when he was asked to produce paintings of six classic commercial aircraft for a trade calendar. Today Richard divides this painting output equally between both automotive and aviation subjects. In 2016 he completed his first commission for The Royal Air Force, part of the centenary commemorations for 32 (Royal) Squadron based at Northolt.

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Richard joined the Guild of Aviation artists as a

‘friend’ member in 2010, he was keen to further

explore the world of aviation art and to hopefully

get some positive feedback on his work. His

aviation art was instantly well received and by

2013 Richard had been promoted to ‘Associate

Membership’. To date, all his work has been

accepted for the GAvA exhibitions that he has

entered and he has won the ‘unjuried show’

award for GAvA ‘friend’ members in 2010 and

again in 2011. In August 2015 Richard was

promoted to ‘Full Membership’ and as such his

work now ranks alongside the established masters

in the field of aviation art. 

 

Richard enjoys the benefits of his guild membership to the full, regularly sketching and painting at UK aviation venues. More recently he has taken on the role of organiser for the South East Region and it always ready to share his experience at these sketching events, revues and critiques. 

 

 In 2013 Richard was accepted as a ‘foreign affiliate’ artist member of the American Society of Aviation Artists and has now successfully exhibited with them for four successive years, travelling to the US for the forums and picking up a total of six prestigious awards.