Richard Croft PPRUA

Richard Croft studied at Bromley College of Art 1951-55 and Brighton College of Art 1957-58. He came to Belfast in 1959 to Dunlambert School, Fortwilliam and then succeeded Wilfred Stewart as Head of Art at Annadale Grammer School. In 1966 he won a commended prize in the Gallagher Portrait Competition.

Now retired from teaching, Croft has a studio in Dundrum, County Down. Describing his method of painting as 'funambulism or tightrope walking', Croft switches between abstraction and realism.

'I have been painting Still Life since student days and I find the process of choosing objects such as fruit, vegetables, glass and material and "arranging" them in carefully considered compositions is a most satisfying experience. All these Still Life works have been set on a simple kitchen table, which becomes part of the geometric pattern. I have been collecting pieces of printed material for years which are used in conjunction with pieces of card to conjoin with these objects to blend into a "complex" or a "simple composition". For many years I have been translating some works into a print format, a process I find challenging as it entails reducing a work with hundreds of colours to maybe seven or eight.'