South Northants Art Trail - introducing Chris Richbell's work

Working en plein air

In the run up to next month’s South Northants Art Trail, we thought we would introduce you to some of the artists taking part at Yardley Arts, starting with Chris Richbell.

Chris paints mainly in watercolour or acrylic, and sometimes with mixed media and oils. She prefers to paint outside whatever the weather, which brings a whole new meaning to watercolour.

A busy artist, she has recently illustrated a children’s book and also the front cover for a legal publication. In her spare time, she has been restoring highly intricate painted ceilings in Abruzzo, Italy.

Many of you will know already that Chris is also a part-time tutor for Yardley Arts and has run a number of courses based on watercolours for beginners and beyond. Previously, she taught Art in its various forms - painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography - in a number of schools in Northamptonshire including Wellingborough School and Wrenn School. It is very exciting for her to be back teaching and sharing her expertise.

Over the years, Chris has won prizes locally and nationally with two awards from the Royal Watercolour Society in their 21st Century Open Exhibition that led to a very successful solo exhibition in London.

She has exhibited with the New English Art Club at the Mall Gallery in London, at Bankside Gallery in London, the Three Hares Gallery in Olney, the Beeby Gallery in Olney, Alfred East Gallery in Kettering, the Guildhall Gallery in Northampton, and has had work accepted by the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, London.

But that’s not all, many private and corporate bodies including the Savoy Group have purchased her paintings.

If you come and view her work at this year’s Art Trail, you may spot that some of her main artistic influences are Turner, Piper, Vilhelm Hammershoi, Kurt Jackson and David Tress. Whilst her current passion is the interplay of light and reflections, and she gets great pleasure from battling outside with her local river environment, providing constantly changing opportunities for work.

One of Chris Richbell’s larger landscape works