Richard Sorrell

I paint my pictures in my studio in West Cornwall.

The pictures are inventions, or reinventions of reality, based on a lifetime of looking, and built up from sketches, ideas, and growing out of the process of painting itself. By 'the process of painting' I mean the manipulation of shapes and colours, their alteration to fit in with each other, and the change in the balance, rhythm and meaning of the picture that this entails.

Perhaps because they are inventions, the pictures show a kind of reality that is unfamiliar to many people. They are not, for instance, photographic images. They are paintings of things rather than the appearance of things. Sometimes they may appear a little awkward and strange, but it is their awkwardness that gives them the power to communicate, to say things rather than simply to illustrate them.

I started my career as a painter of landscape and still life with a few portraits, and I worked in this way for perhaps 25 years, when I lived in London and Norfolk. I also painted from memory and imagination, and I made something of a speciality of aerial views - mostly of grand houses - for the National Trust and the owners of stately homes.

Over the past 15 - 20 years, the invented paintings have come to the fore, and I have also taken an interest in sculpture, gardens and planting.

BIOGRAPHY
Richard Sorrell was born in 1948, the son of Alan Sorrell, the historical draughtsman and painter, and Elizabeth Sorrell, the watercolourist.

He studied at the Royal Academy Schools (Post Graduate Course), having also attended Walthamstow Art School (Pre-Diploma) and Kingston College of Art (Dip AD)

He was elected to the Royal Watercolour Society in 1975, served as Vice President of that society 2002 - 05, and was elected President 2006 2009.