Thornton, Richard: Chalford, Gloucestershire

Description

Artist: Richard Thornton,(born 1922)

Title and date: Chalford, Gloucestershire, 1981

Size of picture: 45 x 55 cm

Description: a near luminous oil on canvas capturing the character of this lovely village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds. The painting reflects Richard Thornton’s distinctive artistic skill and technique, it’s signed and dated 1981, and is accompanied by a label indicating it was exhibited by the ‘Royal Birmingham Society of Artists’, presented in an original silver metal frame.

More images can be provided on request.

Artist description:

Also an architect, Richard Thornton is a highly skilled but very much underappreciated artist. He was born in Bebington, Cheshire and attended the Birmingham School of Art from 1939 to 1941. Following active war service, he furthered his studies at the School of Architecture, Birmingham, from 1946 to 1950. Elected an Associate of the Society in 1978, full membership followed three years later. He has been in architectural practice all his working life and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1950.

Richard Thornton has exhibited his paintings extensively throughout the West Midlands, his main mediums being watercolour and gouache. His pictures are mainly landscapes incorporating buildings, no doubt owing some allegiance to his architectural background. Prior to the mid-1960s most of his work depicted the Black Country and Birmingham, particularly showing bomb damaged buildings and industrial deterioration. Latterly however, the majority of his work has shown views of hill towns and villages in Tuscany and Provence.