Richard Gray is a semi figurative landscape painter living in North Yorkshire. Originally from Sheffield, he moved to Ripon to study Fine Art in the late 80s, and apart from a year in London to attend Goldsmith’s college, has stayed in North Yorkshire ever since. He loves the wide open spaces in the Vale of York, and the easy access to both the spectacular Yorkshire coast, and the Moors and Dales. Visiting these areas as regularly as time permits, they feature heavily in his work. Richard works from memory after these visits, and is inspired by the transitions of light, of changes in the weather and the seasons. Richard often doesn’t know what each painting is going to be about when he starts, trying instead to respond to the image as the painting progresses. His work is predominantly in oils, which allows him to push the paint around, scratching into it, and building up layers and glazes. Stepping back regularly, and thinking about what is happening on the canvas, he finds that each piece tends to take on a life of its own, and usually becomes redolent of a place recently visited. Richard has long been concerned with the effects of light. Living and working under the big skies of the Vale of York, he is inspired by how the light changes and how it plays out across the land. He strives for a sense of atmosphere, stillness and contemplation about the land and about self.