Richard King — Soldier's Arts Academy

RICHARD KING

After leaving the Royal Marines in 2014, I re-established my path in the building industry and qualified as a Loss Assessor in handling buildings insurance claims and disaster management. Two years ago, one of my clients (Richard Price ROI) unfortunately passed away. He was an accomplished artist in his own right and was invited to become a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painter (ROI).

It was at this point that art entered my life as I often had long discussions with Richard about art and which of his paintings he would display in London and/or sell. After his unfortunate passing, the family, knowing I had shown an interest in art and a desire to paint, allowed me to keep some of his used paints and brushes.

After some stressful days, I picked up the brushes and oils and painted two pictures, one abstract and one from a photo that I had taken whilst holidaying in Alderney. The abstract one lead me into three-dimensional painting (projecting images from the canvas) which has subsequently found its way into my sea/sky oil paintings, where I have started to use heavy medium pastes to create an object with an oil painted background.

Before ‘lockdown’ I enrolled on a short course with the Bournemouth Art Academy starting from the basics (Drawing) and moving on to what to date, I think, is my best, realistic oil painting.

During lockdown, I experimented with three-dimensional painting culminating in ‘what’s on the easel today’, a picture of the break water in Cornwall as I floundered my way around my art studio (spare room). During the doldrums of lockdown, I found the SAA which have been a lifeline in discovery and moving my journey in art forward and attending as many of their art courses as I can. This has been both inspirational and mentally satisfying, in homing the passion and calming the stresses of life.

As a trained carpenter, I turn and mould all my own picture frames from scratch and mount all my own oil paintings, basically to save costs. My other interest, apart from Rugby, is hand crafted leather work and projects, I am currently making myself a jewellery box.

Going forward, I am looking at working with water colour mediums and branching out into pottery which also interests me.