Anthea Richards 

 

When I was 9 years old my grandfather came to live with us. He was an artist and carpenter who had taught life drawing. He gave me some oil paints, and showed me how to use them and how I could make an image without an outline. I wanted to be an artist! 

 

At 11 years old, I was sent to Sidcot, a Quaker boarding school in Somerset. The school had a very good art reputation and the art master during my first two years was John Newark. As well as drawing and painting we were taught linocut printing. I loved the print technique of building up images in layers. In 1954, James Bradley, a friend and devotee of Victor Pasmore, joined the staff as the art master and transformed our art education with Victor Pasmore's Basic Design Course. I loved all of the processes that we learnt. 

 

When I left Sidcot school I went to The Slade of Fine Art. The tutors who had a particular influence on me were Patrick George and Frank Aurbach. Since then I have been a practising artist while also working as an art tutor and an art examiner for the Cambridge Board. I retired from full time teaching in 2000 and moved to St. Ives, Cornwall. I joined the Print Workshop and The St. Ives Society of Artists, exhibiting my work there and in various other galleries including The Penwith Gallery.  

 

Now I live in Oxford where I am continuing to work, concentrating mainly on drawing and printmaking.