Richard Smith - Tauranga (Oil)

Richard was born in Tauranga in 1955. Although he has no formal art training, he has been committed to painting since his teenage years. Even before then, he had spent many hours in his fathers boat-building workshop, observing and drawing boats under his construction, developing the accomplishes formal skills and techniques now so evident in his work. He has been influenced by American artist Edward Hooper and by a number of New Zealand painters.

Richard made art his primary focus in 2001 when he made the decision to paint full-time, and to become a member of the ArtStudio collective gallery in Mount Maunganui.Richard describes his style as ‘contemporary realism’, executed with a strong sense of depth and colour, from and contrast.