Richard Straley Profile
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I am a landscape painter working in watercolour and mixed media and living in the 'Cotswolds' area of SW England.
My paintings are characterised by rich, vibrant colour and dramatic texture, enhanced by the use of copper leaf. They express a strong feeling of 'place' and 'belonging'; my ideas and images being developed under the influence of Chinese Taoist philosophy, the poetry of T.S.Eliot and the music of John Tavener and the Russian Orthodox Church.
I have a love of fields and the shapes created by edges, scrapings and ploughing, clumps and paths all of which combine to give that special sense of place which I feel very strongly in the Cotswolds.
Tao teaches us that age and the cycles of growth and maturity and the passing of the seasons are part of a cycle without beginning or end where order is seen to emerge out of chaos and in the case of my paintings create a complex of themes and counter themes, harmonies and discords, that find echoes in the music and poetry I so love.
I would be totally lost without the paintings of Samuel Palmer, Rothko and Cecil Collins.
"The seeing of things and the seeing into things"
Cecil Collins 1989.
In August 2001, after a very satisfying career in Further Education, mainly at Foundation and Access level, I retired from full-time teaching. I am now able to concentrate on painting and part-time teaching at The Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester, the Gloucestershire Re-integration Service, and the Gloucestershire Neighbourhood College.
I am married to Eunice, a photographer who trained and performed in modern dance and now works in Study Support at Gloucestershire University. We have two children Ben and Peter.
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More Info
| Name: | Richard Straley |
2, Church Close, | |
| Phone: | 01452 814546 |
| Occupation: | Painter |
| Hobbies: | Painting |
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