Victor Richardson was born in Belfast in 1952. He moved to County Cork in 1974 where he has lived for most of the last 30 years except for a few years in England and France. He has worked as a professional painter since 1980, exhibiting widely in Ireland , Britain and the U.S.A. Obvious influences in his paintings were the works of Seurat, Bonnard and Klimt, but over time he has adapted elements of Impressionism and Pointillism to develop his own distinctive style which manifests a fresh and vivid approach to traditional imagery.
For most of his career Richardson has worked in soft pastel. Pastel is often confused with chalk, but whereas the latter is merely limestone and dye, pastel is actually dry powdered pigment moulded into a crayon with binding solution. The word pastel is actually derived from the "paste" made by grinding the pigment and binder together. Pastel is as close as an artist can come to painting with pure colour and there is no cracking or discolouring with age, as is evident with many oil paintings.
In recent years he has returned to oil painting and now exhibits both pastels and oils in his current solo shows.
“I have always been drawn to the possibilities of light, texture, colour and design afforded by trees and water, often the raw materials of my landscapes, be they in Ireland , France or America. Over the years, I have developed my own distinctive approach to landscape, interpreting it in the impressionist spirit but with a modern style. My world is not as it truly is, but how it ought to be. Perhaps I try to speak not so much to the mind, but to the heart, for surely reflection and beauty have more to do with sensitivity than with intelligence."
Victor Richardson
“To my mind, it is this term which best describes the work of Victor Richardson with its separation of colour into individual strokes of pigment, in accord with colour theories, rather than into actual points. Like Signac, in his scenes featuring water the impression of glittering natural sunlight is achieved through the placement of coloured strokes to create a prismatic effect. His favouring of squarer dabs of paint which create a mosaic effect is also reminiscent of Signac’s later work. But chief amongst the characteristics shared by Signac and Richardson is that of a fluidity created by the gradation of colours, a natural passing from one colour to another without the full-stop of mixing. It is the resultant juxtaposition of colours which makes them vibrate and it is the vibration which renders them exuberant. What immediately strikes one on viewing Richardson’s paintings is their sheer effervescence : they bubble with life. Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne the colours pop and dance across the canvas. It is this intense liveliness which renders the works so happy and life-enhancing. All is positive and inspirational. It is no coincidence that water is a constant feature in his work: the font of all life, it is used to reflect back the life it has helped create. As a result, the circle of nature is completed. This gives great comfort to the viewer: all is right with the world as we are transported into le meilleur des mondes possibles!”
Síle Connaughton-Deeny
Dublin, June 2009