15 THE  ART OBSERVER July 2010 in my Saddleworth studio as a reminder of a wonderful man and artist. 6. You now live in Italy. How did that come about? Well, when I met Julie, my partner, over 10 years ago, I had never been further than Northern England really. I didn’t even have a passport. Now we live in a medieval hilltop town in Tuscany! How life can change! Seven years ago we typed “Tuscany, Art” into the Google search engine, bringing up a Website for a town called Barga in Northern Tuscany. It looked beautiful, so we came on holiday for two weeks and ended up buying a studio apart- ment in a 500-year old Medici Palace, and four years ago made the permanent move with our then 14-year old daughter - who is now totally fluent in Italian, inspired me a lot. His loose, atmospheric painting technique and expressive sketches got me excited about creating art. He had a studio and gallery in the Cotswolds and whilst on holiday I visited the gallery where his wife was working. We got chatting and eventually mentioned that I was a huge fan of John’s work and so she made an appointment for me to visit John at his studio the following morning. Well, what an amazing experience that was - a 15- year old schoolboy invited to see such a renowned painter! John was so humble, showing me his latest work and private sketchbooks and I will never forget that morning with him. Sadly he died in 2002 and I felt so lucky to eventually purchase one of his original paintings 20 years ago from the Tib Lane Gallery in Manchester. The painting hangs as is Julie (she’s a linguist) but I am still hopeless! Cheap air travel and the Internet allow me to stay in touch with the art scene in the UK, and I go back several times a year to continue working with a few selected galleries and paint Northern England from my studio base in Saddleworth. In fact I remember one visit to Wendy’s. I had a very early flight from Pisa, arriving at Liverpool airport at 8.30am, picked up the hired car and was outside her gallery before 10am, waiting for Wendy to open up - she only lived in Knutsford and I had come from a little town in Tuscany thou- sands of miles away! Wendy has represented me for around 8 years and I feel very privileged having my solo exhi- bition with her every year as she is inundated with many talented artists. 7. How do you see your work developing? When I first started 12 years ago, I used painting knives 90% of the time, now I use a brush 90% of the time. In fact many of my paintings are created using just one medium sized brush - nothing else. I now also paint a lot more in quick drying oil paints which suits my paint- ing style, completing most of the picture in one session. Sometimes I take the painting home for Julie to see and prop it on a shelf for a few days and see if any adjustments are necessary, but I don’t like fiddling - I like the immediacy of completing work in one painting session and I never have more than one pic- ture on the go - one is enough for the brain to cope with! We are in the process of buying a small apartment in a medieval village on the French/Italian bor- der, which I’m sure will inspire and take me in another direc- tion, the area being so famous for its connection with The French Impressionists. 8. Finally, a non art-related question – if you were on a desert island, what two items would you take with you? Obviously it would be a set of never-ending oil paints, a brush that never wears out and a never-ending supply of canvass- es. Since living in Italy, my other interest is coffee, so it would have to be an espresso coffee machine with Illy coffee. I love sitting outside family-run Italian cafes in the sunshine, watching the world pass by. All the great artists frequented cafes to discuss art and people watch - I’m just continuing the tradition, that’s my excuse anyway! RICHARD’S NEXT SOLO EXHIBITION WILL BE AT THE WENDY J LEVY GALLERY FROM 8TH TO 30TH OCTOBER Sunlight and Shadows, Manchester