about the artists

Richard Morgan was born into an East End family (in Hobday Street, Poplar) in 1942. In his early years he grew up surrounded by a post war landscape where, and it seemed quite natural to him at the time, there were ragged gaps in the rows of small terraced houses. Most of the next two roads, Elsemere and Brabazon Streets, had simply ceased to exist, having become the arbitrary target of a V. 1. flying bomb. In contrast to this, during the month of August, there were annual visits to the Kentish hop gardens, which now in retrospect seem (to him) like a pilgrimage from bombsites to paradise. It was during these working holidays when the first seeds of a profound relationship began to grow between Richard and the rural landscape.

After an abortive attempt to train as an engineering draughtsman, and then working as an advertising artist during the late fifties and early sixties, he moved away from London to Suffolk in 1966, where from 1970, he has concentrated fully on producing his artwork.

   childhood painting by Richard Morgan

And now in 2013, at the age of 71, this exhibition is the latest in a line that stretches back to his first show here (in Aldeburgh) in 1971. Throughout the whole of this period the richness of the Suffolk and Norfolk landscape (that for him have implications beyond themselves) has been a major element in his work. Furthermore it is true to say that, in one sense, all his art has been produced for the love of a landscape.

He has held one man shows at The Arts Centre, Lowestoft; Reades Gallery, Aldeburgh; Deben Gallery, Woodbridge; Magdalene St Gallery, Cambridge; Pottergate Gallery, Norwich; Manor Gallery, Royston; Buxton Mill Gallery, Norfolk; McMurray Gallery, S.W.1; David Potter Gallery, Dorchester; Chiltern Gallery W.1.

Nigel Moody was born in 1961 and grew up close to Hickling Broad in the Norfolk Broads. As a child he showed a propensity for drawing and painting and was a natural born draughtsman. Later as a young man he studied art, first at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design, and later at Winchester School of art. His natural drawing talent, with his uncanny feel for the play of light and for rendering the elusive textures of nature has matured, and is indicative of his profound love of the landscape that surrounds him.

Childhood drawing by Nigel Moody

He has exhibited at:

Picturecraft Gallery, Holt

Tudor Gallery, Norwich

Fairhurst Gallery, Norwich

Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh

Garage Gallery, Aldeburgh

Cinema, Gallery, Aldeburgh

Galerie Gaffelaar Breda, Conferencie Oord De Poort, Prinsenbeek Town Hall and Gerristmastate in the Netherlands

Great Yarmouth Library Gallery

Westminster Art Library, London