Born in Bombay, India, Richard Winkworth spent his formative years traversing Asia, his father a chief officer of the British India Steam Navigation. Aged 11, Richard and his family relocated to England, a destination that Winkworth found foreign and unsettling; creating a vacuum of desire for life in the Far East that he would later translate into his paintings, weaving Asian colour and form into his work.
His seemingly simple still life studies of one of man’s most early objects, the pot, are in fact drenched in subtle nuances of complex and vibrant layers of colour with extensive surface detail that manifest upon further study. Underscoring the potency of this primitive symbol is the artist’s use of encaustic painting, one of the oldest artistic techniques known to us. Predating oil and using a fastidiously controlled mix of heated beeswax, damar resin and pigment, the word encaustic is derived from the Greek, 'Enkaustikos', translating literally to "burn in with fire", which Winkworth references in the title of his most recent show “Playing with Fire”.
Richard Winkworth was educated in the United Kingdom, obtaining his Bachelor of Arts at Brighton University, followed by an M.A at the prestigious Chelsea School of Art, London. He has exhibited worldwide and his work is held is the corporate collections of Unilever, Xerox, Adam & Co and a number of private collections globally.
