Richard Pikesley RWS, PNEAC, SPG

For Richard, painting is a conversation with the visual world and starts with painting in front of the subject. It is always a matter of finding equivalents, in paint, for light and space and seeing the world ‘in paint’ continues to be an obsession.

Method of Working

Painting starts with an immediate response. Seeing perhaps an effect of light which really grabs my attention. The first step will usually be a painting, made fast enough to get the moment down. After years of working with oil paint and watercolour, their familiarity means he can rely on working quite instinctively at this stage. The moment passes and I usually needs more information especially if I feel it could become a bigger painting. The next stage will often be to make a more considered drawing, which might take many hours. Bigger paintings may spring from this material, started in the studio and when practical taken back to the location and completed on the spot.

Biographical Details

• 1951 Born in London
• 1969-70 Harrow School of Art
• 1970-1973 Canterbury College of Art
• 1973-74 University of London Institute of Education
• 1974 Elected Member of New English Art Club
• 1997 Elected Member of the Royal Watercolour Society
• 2013-2018 President, New English Art Club

Scholarships, Awards, Prizes

• 1981 & 1989 Finalist, Hunting Group prize exhibition
• 1987 E.F. Hutton prize
• 1988 W.H. Patterson prize
• 1993 Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust Award
• 1998 Finalist Singer Friedlander/Sunday Times watercolour prize
• 1998 Winner Woodhay drawing prize
• 2001 Winner £1000 Painter’s Prize – Alresford Gallery
• 2001 Winner of the Chairman’s Prize and the South West Regional Prize – Discerning Eye
• 2022 Critics’ Prize, New English Art Club

Past Exhibitions

• 2025 The Little Gallery, Marlborough
• 2024 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2024 Russell Gallery, Dorset
• 2023 Fosse Gallery, Oxfordshire
• 2022 Jerram Gallery Dorset
• 2021 Russell Gallery, London
• 2020 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2019 Fosse Gallery, Oxfordshire
• 2018 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2017 Russell Gallery, London
• 2016 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2015 Russell Gallery, London
• 2014 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2013 Russell Gallery, London
• 2012 Jerram Gallery, Dorset
• 2011 Russell Gallery, London
• 2010 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 2009 Russell Gallery, London
• 2008 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 2007 Russell Gallery, London
• 2006 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 2005 Russell Gallery, London
• 2004 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 2003 New Grafton Gallery
• 2002 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 2001 The Gallery, Dorchester
• 2001 New Grafton Gallery, London
• 2000 Alresford Gallery, Hampshire
• 1999 New Grafton Gallery, London
• 1998 Alresford Gallery
• 1997 Richard Hagen Fine Art, exhibition to launch ‘Oils Workshop’ book.
• 1996 Alresford Gallery
• 1994 New Grafton Gallery