richard twose

Richard Twose was born in Devon in 1963. He studied 3D Design at the University of Creative Arts, Farnham from 1986 to 1989. After graduating he based himself in London and became a jewellery designer. For the next 13 years Richard sold his collections worldwide to stores such as Barneys New York and Harvey Nichols. He also designed bespoke collections for, among others, Margaret Howell and Paul Smith as well as making one-off pieces for clients including Sting, Joan Collins and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones.

During this period Richard was a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton and Camberwell Art College, However in 2000, looking for new challenges, Richard decided to close his jewellery business and moved to a village south of Bath. Whilst teaching art and history of art at a sixth form college in Bristol he began to paint portraits.

His work was exhibited at galleries in Bristol and Bath. In 2011 he won the Victoria Prize at Bath’s Victoria Gallery and was invited to become a member of the Bath Society of Artists.

In 2014 Richard was runner up at the BP Portrait Award in the National Portrait Gallery.

Ben Luke described Richard’s painting as having an elusive, poetic quality:

“... But best of all is the second-prize work, Richard Twose’s painting of Jean Woods, an elegant fashion model from Bath, interrupted by elements of colourful abstraction. It reminds me of the painter Howard Hodgkin’s description of Degas’s great portrait of Helene Rouart in the National Gallery - that it has that “glancing, slightly dematerialised quality that one does actually see in reality”

Ben Luke - Art Critic - London Evening Standard 25th June 2014

More below.....

Jean Woods - Oil

Richard has been interviewed by the critic Edward Lucie-Smith and was chosen by Jonathan Yeo to feature in a CNN Arts documentary “Ones to Watch”.

In 2015 he appeared in a film that accompanied the National Gallery and the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum’s major exhibition ‘Rembrandt, the Late Works’ where he demonstrated Rembrandt’s painting techniques.

In the autumn 2015 Richard was NOA Artist in Residence at the Royal College of Art

He now paints full time in his studio in a remote barn in Somerset. Richard’s recent commissions include Alice Prochaska, Principal of Somerville College, Oxford and Viscountess Rosie Grimston, whose unbroken collection of family portraits goes back to 1452.

His first solo show ‘Hypnos’, opened at the Biscuit Factory, Newcastle in spring 2016. He also has a solo show in Stow-on-the-Wold during the summer 2016

Autumn 2016 Richard will install a new mural scale work in the windows of Canary Wharf Tower

He is currently working on several portrait commissions and preparing for solo shows in London and New York in 2017.

He has been asked to be a member of the Diversity and Equality group, Oxford University, to select 25 new commissions for portraits which will be displayed and hung across Oxford University.

He is also an occasional tutor at the National Portrait Gallery.

Selected shows:

Upcoming 2017

February - Solo show, Catto Gallery, Hampstead, London

2016

September - Installation at Canary Wharf Tower

Thompson's Gallery , New Cavendish St, London Autumn show

Summer - Wychwood Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold - Solo show -

March - June, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle - Solo show - 'Hypnos'

2015

Autumn - Thompson's Gallery, New Cavendish Street, London W1

July - Junction Gallery, Woodstock - 'Interiors'

'Fresh Green Shoots' Darren Baker Gallery, Charlotte St. London

2014

BP Portrait Award. National Portrait Gallery, London. second prize for Portrait of Jean Woods

BP Portrait Award. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

BP Portrait Award. National Museum, Cardiff.

BP Portrait Award. Sunderland Museum and Winter Grardens.

'Secret Lives' - Beaux Arts, Bath

'Transient Bodies' - View Gallery, Bristol

The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle

20/21, Royal College of Art

2013

'Momentum' View Gallery, Bristol

Bath Society of Artists’ Summer Show

The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle

20/21 Royal College of Art

2012

Bath Society of Artists’ Summer Show. Winner: The Victoria Prize

'All That We Are' Bath Contemporary Gallery, Bath

'Hidden Portraits' View Gallery Bristol

2011

'Form and Colour' – Paintworks Gallery, Bristol

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