Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

Abstract Figures. Signed with initials CMR bottom right corner.
A unique chance to buy an original painting by the little known but successful artist Carola Richards 1916-2004. Mixed media on paper, beautifully presented with a thick cream mount-board. Image size 500 x 612mm. overall size including mount 690 x 792mm. Along with many other works by the artist this painting was purchased from an auction sale in 2004, which had been instructed to disperse the entire contents of her studio after her death
CAROLA RICHARDS 1916-2004
Born in Salford, Lancashire, Carola graduated in geology in 1938 and then qualified as a housing manager, in which profession she worked until 1973. Carola began painting in her early forties, eventually taking early retirement and moving to Brighton to pursue her art full time. Her teachers included Hayward Veal, Peter Richmond, George Hooper and John Meadows. She continued to study drawing and painting for the rest of her life, exploring a wide variety of approaches and media along the way.

Following early impressionistic work and a period of hard-edge abstraction, she progressed to a mature way of working in a colourful exploration of imaginary subjects. Colour was her primary interest and she achieved subtle and unusual relationships. But, another side of her personality engendered strange images colourful, whimsical, surreal, often bizarre strange forms appeared as she worked over and over paintings going, as she said, in unforseen directions and often surprising herself with the final results. She described the process of painting as "frustrating, mysterious and exciting."

Carola was elected a member of the Eastbourne Group of artists in 1993, and exhibited annually with them at the Towner Art Gallery and elsewhere. Over the years her work has been shown in many places, including
1975 Brighton Polytechnic - Ansvar - Painting SE
1980 University of Essex
1981 Tichbourne Studios, Brighton
1982 London Group, Camden Arts Centre
1982 London Group, St Ives
1982 London Group, Gardner Arts Centre, Brighton
1983 Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
1984 London Group, Royal College of Art
1987 Brighton gallery of Fine Art
1989 Red Herring Gallery, Brighton
1991 Brighton Festival, Open House exhibition
1991 Albion gallery, Lewes, solo exhibition
1995 Sussex Open, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
1998 Sussex Open, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
1999 Old School Hall, Arundel
Always curious about new ideas and processes, in her mid-eighties Carola decided to learn how to use a computer as a painting tool, and in 1999 her computer prints were exhibited in the Arundel exhibition. This exemplifies her approach to life in general she was always open to new ideas, excited by challenges and dogged in her pursuit of what she felt to be important. She never lost her child like enthusiasm and her work reflects the freedom and imagination of the ever young mind.

As a person, Carola was extremely sociable, caring and thoughtful always strongly emotionally involved in the lives of many friends. She travelled widely and learned several languages, most notably Russian, which she continued to study with great dedication until her death in 2004.