Press release for

'In Leafy Groves and Glades'

 New End Gallery, Hampstead

In Leafy Groves and Glades, New End Gallery, Hampstead, April 2010

There are those turning points in life that have just been waiting to happen; it just needs a trigger to flick the switch. A holiday in a Tuscan villa surrounded by olive groves was the one that changed Richard Corbett’s life and work. Every morning the sun would wake him glistening through the trees, creating long shadows across the grass. The scene was filled with deep greys, olive greens, reds and yellows. Since then, he has strived to share the joy that scene inspired in his paintings.

Richard, now based in Monmouth, South Wales, has immersed himself in Nature since he first studied art at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School and  then at Watford and Norwich Schools of Art. “Somehow trees have always been there, whether it be through creating woodcuts from old drift wood, or taking photographs of their movement in the water, but they have always led to abstract ideas, and generally dark and moody ones at that.” However, for the last two years, and especially since his trip to Tuscany, he has returned to his paint brushes and canvas and started to work directly from the landscape.

Alongside olive groves and the glades that can be seen from his studio in Wales, Richard will also be hanging a number of paintings of sunlit corners of Hampstead Heath created during his regular visits over the past year.

 Richard is very excited to be showing in London again with a set of work that he feels is very poignant at the moment when the world is changing so fast and lives are so busy: “I hope that by celebrating the glorious effects of the sun as it travels through the branches into intimate spaces my works inspire memories of special moments, spent calm and secure in the realms of trees.”

The rivers, wetlands and estuaries around Newport, South Wales, the Cornish coast and the east coast of Suffolk have inspired my work, as well as the hills and skies I can see from my house in Osbaston, in the Monnow Valley.

I graduated in Printmaking from Norwich School of Art in 1994 and then taught in Suffolk for ten years until I moved to Monmouth in 2005 to set up a studio. I have exhibited widely since moving to the area and now have work in private collections across the UK, in Europe and the US.

My aim is to celebrate Nature through paint and print. For me it is all about capturing the wind and the way light changes as the clouds, trees and water move. Above all, I hope to find an abstract space that evokes the spiritual within us- the Inscape.

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Press release about The Smithfield Gallery Exhibition, November 2008

Monmouth based artist, Richard Corbett, has always been inspired by Nature, especially the vast open spaces carved by the rivers and seas. Until 2005 he lived on the Suffolk Heritage Coast, where he created abstract prints and drawings based on the reedbeds and mudflats on the Rivers Alde and Ore. The River Wye and its steep slopes were quite a contrast and assimilating them into his work was quite difficult. It seemed fate that he eventually discovered the Newport Wetlands.

When the RSPB took him on board, deciding to work closely with him towards his first major solo exhibition in London, they suggested that the Newport Wetlands should be the focus of his work.

“I was filled with joy when I first set foot on the paths round the reedbeds on what was clear sunny Winter’s day, with a breeze in the air and the light dazzling off the mud in the estuary- a perfect place for me to work.”

In the short time since Richard started work on this collection for the exhibition in London, he has created some stunning pieces that have captured the spirit of the wetlands. The new works have been received with great acclaim by bird lovers, art buyers and volunteers at the Centre.

“Newport Wetlands has a unique magic. All I can try to do is express what I feel about it in my paintings and my prints. I feel very fortunate to be able to share these with the public and to use them to raise money for the education of others about this special place.”