Robin Richmond
On Solitary Fields
6-29th March 2014
Private View: Wednesday 5th March 2014 from 6-8pm
Artist Talk: Tuesday 18th March at 7pm
1
“Robin Richmond is one of the finest painters working in Britain today”
Art Review
“Robin Richmond has surely found herself a secure space within the upper echelons of the
present incarnation of British Landscape painting”
Julian Freeman, British Art Journal
Robin Richmond’s work has always been about the physical act of remembering. Her
landscapes appear as if glimpsed fleetingly, like mirages with only trace elements of the
reality behind seeping through. Swathes of layered colour allude to sky or soil, creating
atmospheric, half remembered impressions of horizons, lakes and fields. All are definite
places in the world; each painting is precisely titled as an existing location, however we view
them as if through a veil or a dream.
1The Heather Blazing, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100cm
2
3
Although produced from numerous studies made in nature, these paintings attempt to evoke
a sense of place rather than making a literal transcription of a particular environment. They
tread a delicate balance between figuration and abstraction, as much recalling an emotional
response to the landscape as its factual contours.
The majority of her current works
are inspired by French, Sicilian and
Italian landscapes. Amongst these
are the characteristic skies and
textured grounds which are
recognisable as archetypal
depictions of locations in these
countries. Many of the works in this
show are made from an isolated
studio in South-West France, next to
the forested Lake Rouffiac (left)
which so often appears as a subject
in her paintings.
The title of the show, On Solitary
Fields is taken from A Light Exists in
Spring a much loved poem by Emily
Dickinson describing Dickinson’s
almost religious experience of nature,
specifically in relation to a particular
quality of light experienced in Spring.
When alone in nature Robin Richmond
too is touched briefly by this light
whilst in “solitary fields”, a transient
experience which she attempts to
encapsulate in her paintings.
Robin Richmond lives and works in London and South-West France. She is the author of 7
books and is a regular contributor to numerous arts journals. She has work in a number of
museum collections, as well as many private and corporate collections. She attained both her
Fine Art BA and her MA in Art History at Chelsea School of Art. She has been a fellow and
Artist in Residence at Yale University, USA since 2003. Last year her work was the subject of
a major retrospective at the Château D’Excideuil.
For more information, including the exhibition catalogue, contact Robin Spalding
on 020 7323 4700 or robin@curwengallery.com.
2Shadows Hold Their Breath, Reflection, Lake Rouffiac, France, Autumn, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 102 x 152cm
3Agrigento, Sicily, 2013, acrylic and lava sand on canvas, 66 x 82cm