Richard Young

Autor:©Richard Young

Biography:
My name is Richard Young, I am a British national, born in Yorkshire in 1961, and now based in North Devon, UK where I have my office and studio.

Though I have always had a flair for pencil and chalk drawing, I began oil painting at the age of 12, studied hard, developed a talent and practiced in every spare moment, enjoying early regional competition success and media publicity for my work in the North of England. Fortunately, my tutors recognized my skill and encouraged me to undertake both my Ordinary and Advanced level art exams a few years earlier than my peers, which I passed with the top grades. Being financially driven at that time, in 1983 I graduated in engineering and with a passion to travel, I initially pursued a career as a design consultant with various International design consulting companies, residing primarily in the Middle East. Nevertheless, an artisan at heart, I returned to Commercial Art several years ago as a semi professional freelance artist, and have extensively developed artistry and my own personal style through exhaustive self tuition and 'burning' the midnight oil. I actively display my artwork in my website, galleries, magazine publications, shows and exhibitions and was in 2007 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts.

I am a member of the following Societies and Organizations, for which I adhere fully to their requirements:
Royal Society for Arts (RSA - Fellowship No. 6006459)
Fine Art Trade Guild (Member No. 5727)
Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)
North Devon Arts (Member No. 370)

In addition and as a minimum, I adhere fully to the requirements of The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.
Though I rarely enter competitions due to lack of time and my location, I have recently won the following awards:
November 2011: 'Poise in Silhouette' was a finalist in the Aesthetica Magazine Creative Works Competition out of 3,000 entries and will therefore be featured in the Creative Works Annual 2012.
November 2011: 'The Passion of Dance' was awarded 4th place in the Artavita competition out of 1,200 entries, for which my artwork will shortly be featured in the Important World Artists book.
June 2011: My quaint little home made website was a finalist in the Fine Art Trade Guild's Art and Framing Awards in the Art Business Website category. My website!... Imagine... A mere Starving Artist's minnow of a site, created in Frontpage 2003!, gasping for breath on a shoestring budget in a monstrous sea of huge website whales, fearsome sharks, technically brilliant performing seals and expensive luxury yachts manned by SEO superstars... The black tie awards dinner was on Saturday 11 June in Bedfordshire's Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre.
December 2010: 'Leap into the Unknown' was a finalist in the Aesthetica Magazine Creative Works Competition and is therefore featured in the Creative Works Annual 2011.
October 2010: In Red Bubble's 8th juried invitational Solo Exhibition, 'The Passion of Dance' was judged as '1st Place' and given a special merit 'Inspirational' award in the Traditional category, given another special merit 'Excellence' award in the 'Oil Painting' category and awarded 'Best in Show' overall! A pretty clean sweep...
November 2008: 'Un Momento Intenso' was given a special merit award in the Canon / Art Business Today ‘Print to Win’ competition.
April 2008: I was voted as 'Best Traditional Artist' by other forum members on the Deviant Art website. Here's the interview they did with me afterwards.

I also have a very basic blog and regularly contribute to several art forums such as Deviant Art, Paintings I Love, Red Bubble and Art Wanted where I certainly receive 'interesting' feedback to my artwork from fellow artists, photographers, students, admirers and critiques...
Here's also an interesting interview with Open Magazine, and yes, I'm a Rolf Harris fan..! And here's an interview conducted by International Art Treasures web magazine in relation to a solo art exhibition that I held.
Further, I occasionally come across websites where images of my artwork has been used, which in general I don't mind, provided that the use is not commercial in any way and I am given credit. However, I do prefer to be asked... Anyway, here's one that I particularly liked on U Tube.