Richard Owen
Richard Owen studied painting at UAL: Central St Martins following a break from a career in finance. His work seeks to deconstruct the mark-making process by introducing elements of randomness and chaos to his painting, and aims to create works without specific content yet with an underlying coherence and mood, often using scraping tools such as a palette knife.
His works have been included in the Affordable ArtFair as well as group shows at Neal's Yard Gallery.He has worked with Foss Fine Art and Lacy RoadGallery and recently had works on show at the Chelsea Art Society exhibition (2013). His works canbe found in private collections in the UK and abroad,
and in addition to his solo show at The Art Cabin, 2014 he exhibited at the Open Studio at Wimbledon in May 2014. He will be unveiling his new collection of paintings at the Affordable Art Fair (Battersea) with Lafontaine Contemporary Arts.
Owen's practice is informed by an exploration of colourand shape, as well as the complex and subtlyexpressive nature of oil paint. Starting out paintingsmaller-scale, figurative pieces – cityscapes and still lifes – it was a realization that what interested him was “the contribution of colour and composition to the mood of the painting, rather than any particular subject matter,” which proved to be a turning point in his practice. Reducing the subject over
time to simple motifs and pictorial devices, such as a horizon line or a stylised shadow, Owen realised that “representational content in a painting had become a limiting factor,” pushing him to abandon it completely.
“I want the paintings to be convincing and direct, to create a moment of suspension and even bewitchment.”