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Portrait Drawings and Paintings

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Richard Tomlin Biography

Richard studied graphics at Portsmouth College of Art and subsequently practiced as a graphic designer in London. He ran a creative consultancy working for international brands and small businesses.

Recently he decided to refresh lost skills in drawing and painting. His fascination with people and the inspiration of the work of David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Andrew Wyeth and Alison Lambert, led him to focus on the human figure and portraiture.

Unspoken Stories

Everyone has a story…
…I spend many hours with the people that are the subjects of my drawings and paintings. Sometimes we talk, mostly we are silent whilst music plays.

Everyone has a story to tell, but more often than not it’s an unspoken one.
It’s written on their face or in the way they compose themselves.

Sometimes whilst working I’ll pick up on something I see in them, a mood perhaps and elaborate it in my mind. The completed portrait a combination of our internal lives made visible.

Recently I’ve started creating narrative paintings, telling a story about a current social issue. Betrayal by social media, blackmail as a result of sexting and of course Twitter trolling. All current themes I’m developing in ‘Vicious Tongues’ and the diptych ‘The Hour Between Dog and Wolf’.

Then it’s up to the person viewing the pictures to work out what is going on.

And imagine their own versions of the unspoken stories.

Richard Tomlin artist