Sussex Artists & Sussex Art – Paintings, Commissions and Prints

Artist: Richard Cave

Artist: Richard Cave

Fishing Boat at Newhaven - East Sussex Art Gallery -Artist Richard Cave
Image Size: 48cm x 48cm framed
Art Medium: Watercolour
Painting Price: £350
Commissions Invited

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Contact The Artist

Richard Cave

Watercolour Artist

Art Tutor

Please mention the Berkshire Artists website

Email: richardccave@btinternet.com

Gallery Of Sussex Art By Surrey & Berkshire Artists

About The Artist

I have been painting watercolours seriously for over 30 years, initially as a facility to illustrate my own work as an Architect which developed into providing that service for others. An interest in the built environment, landscape and setting focussed interest of early paintings on buildings in landscape and townscape, inevitably leading me to a traditional taste in subject matter. Although such subjects from real life are still an inspiration, my work over the last ten years has been orientated toward effects of light and the development of a technique which captures this.

Subject matter is often the depiction of life ‘en plein aire’, instigated by the quality of light and form. To capture the moment, watercolour is the ideal medium and my approach has been traditional, even to the extent of not using white body colour (this is a personal preference, because of the ‘alien’ effect of body colour in a transparent medium rather than a criticism of those who use it). I also try to avoid the use of masque but this is mainly because the essence of ‘plein aire’ is usually a fleeting quality of light which does not allow the time necessary for the use of masking mediums.

Studio paintings are different, but even in in these circumstances I prefer to preserve white surfaces while painting or to lift colour in the process. I also tend to use natural earth colours as much as possible; this is partly because they best suit my normal subject matter but also because, unlike a staining colour, they can be lifted when dry to create ‘whites’. I also tend to use a heavy, rough watercolour paper as my support, which lends itself to techniques for manipulating colour including scratching to produce highlights.

One cannot practise watercolour painting and be unaware of the many great practitioners of the art, both alive and dead. One can admire some, such as John Yardley whilst recognising his approach would be impossible for me, whereas examples from John Blockley, Trevor Chamberlain, Lucy Willis and even Russel Flint and Rowland Hilder have all contributed to my own technique.

Art Groups / Exhibitions

I have occasionally submitted works to national exhibitions and have had works accepted on several occasions by the Royal Society of Marine Artists. This is valuable as a means of getting work seen by a wider audience, but the high percentage of sale taken by the gallery does not make this financially advantageous. I therefore prefer to exhibit where my work can be presented for what I consider to be a fair price, without the need to overprice to meet the gallery commission. I also provide watercolour tuition to local groups and occasional commissions.

Websites For Artists

The Derek Cooke website has been created by Surrey and Sussex Artists. If you are an artist in need of a website, please Contact Us.

Artist website for Derek Cooke by Sussex Artists

Art WebsiteTestimonials

"Dear Chris,
We are delighted with our art website. In addition to all the items we requested, you have added many artistic details that really enhanced the site.
We would also like to thank you for your patience, explaining and talking us through all the concepts we did not understand.
It has also been reassuring knowing that you are on the end of the phone ready to answer our queries as they arise.
It has been a pleasure working with you.

Best regards."

Derek and Diane Cooke

Art Website by Surrey Artists

"This is the second website that Chris and Colette from Surrey Artists have designed for me and I am delighted with the result. They put in an amazing amount of work collating a large amount of detail to ensure my paintings are professionally displayed.
The finished website has already attracted a large number of serious enquiries some of which have been converted"

David Harmer

Art Website by Surrey Artists