What Simon Richardson loves the most about being a painter is painting.
While he loves immersing himself in his art for hours at a time in his Broad Bay studio, he also enjoys connecting with his subjects as they sit for him.
"For me personally connecting to people is great."
For the past five or so years Richardson has been painting southern artists. The idea came to him during the Covid-19 lockdown when he was thinking about portraiture and how for centuries portraits have provided a lasting record of the past.
He has continued in that tradition having been commissioned to paint the official civic portrait of then Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, Christ’s College Headmaster Simon Leese, and, more recently, the Auckland University’s official portrait of former vice-chancellor, the late Stuart McCutheon.
Yet many artists themselves are never featured in that way so people never get to see the people behind the art. That is often because creative people are not keen on being in the limelight, he says.
"I thought I’m a portrait painter, that is something I can do. Something that connects me to New Zealand and doing a bit of service as well."
He had already painted poet and writer Hone Tuwhare, who had lived at Kaka Point, prior to his death in 2008, and found it very rewarding so Richardson began reaching out to artists through different contacts.
"I also just think that they are really interesting people because I know myself, it’s quite a big thing to kind of dedicate your life to [art]."
"He gave me that kind of feeling that maybe it was a possibility, he was really interested and supportive of what I was doing."
Poet Sir Vincent Sullivan, who died last year in Dunedin, was a favourite subject.
"I loved painting Vincent O’Sullivan because he was, I mean, just such an amazing conversationalist. Lovely kind of a person."
Richardson never approaches a portrait with a set idea, instead letting it reveal itself, evolving throughout the process and with the conversations had.
"I talk to them about the sorts of things that they are interested in. I asked Vincent if he would like his dog. It used to sit there on his lap. He was really quite excited about that."
A dog, Minerva, also features in his portrait of photographer Fiona Pardington, who lives in South Canterbury, which was a finalist in the prestigious Australian Archibald Prize last year.
"Fiona’s dog was just, like, just the most kind of charming dog. It was always kind of running around, doing interesting stuff.
"I don’t exactly know why, but I just think it’s interesting, people with dogs or with their pets, that kind of, there’s that kind of tradition, you know, way back to people like Velazquez [17th Century Spanish painter] used to paint their royalty with their little dogs and stuff."
Richardson’s interest in painting portraits goes right back. Being told he was good at drawing as a child encouraged him to do more and as he got older teachers encouraged him to follow his talent.
As his mother, Paddy Richardson, was a writer he knew working in the arts was a possibility and she was supportive of that. By the time he reached 7th form (year 13) he knew that was what he wanted to do so he went to art school in Dunedin.
"There’s a group of Spanish realists, which I just remember they had a library book of them at art school, and I just used to look at that book and think there’s just nothing possibly better in the world than that."
At art school he became unsure if he could actually "go out and be an artist". That is where Sydney stepped in. "When you’re starting, it’s just such, seems like such a big step to go into just an empty space, and that’s your work, your job."
But he did it. Organised a studio space and started doing a triple self-portrait thinking the best way was to use himself as a model so he could learn to paint in a realist way.
"It took, like, the whole year to finish the painting, which was, it just was like a sort of a sliding kind of catastrophe, because it just kept taking longer and longer. You know, I would sort of paint myself and think that’s actually not good enough, and just over-painted it constantly.
"So that was quite stressful for my first year. I had this one painting that I did. So it was a bit of an eye-opener."
All was not lost though as he went on to win a scholarship to attend the New York Graduate School of Figurative Art and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant twice allowed him to travel to Europe and the United States visiting international art galleries.
Richardson has always been really interested in painting people’s faces.
"There just seems to be something there always when you paint somebody’s face, there’s emotion and people can relate, relate to it. Well, I do, you know, sort of instantly."
That has been the case with his family. He has painted his wife Gepke, then his son Eben and daughter Mila. His first portrait of 7-year-old Mila in 2016 was selected for the BP Portrait Award at the National Gallery, London, making Richardson the first New Zealander to be selected.
"The first sort of drawing I did of my daughter, I was just like, oh my God, she’s just so gorgeous."
"But I think in some ways, if I was thinking of the most comfortable painting for me, it would be painting somebody really familiar, like a family member in a portrait, just really small."
Yet it was a back, not a face, that garnered Richardson international publicity in the early 2000s when he painted a nude back view of former All Black Anton Oliver.
More recently he has also begun to paint more still lifes, something he has done occasionally over the years. It offers a different challenge as for the viewer it does not have the "instant hook" of somebody’s face, he says.
"I just thought it would be really interesting to try and make something interesting and emotive out of just objects and things rather than having a face."
He likes the opportunity it provides to just set up a scene which he can come back to easily "like a little world in your studio". It could be as simple as Marmite on toast or a whole fish laid out on tinfoil.
Again he references the Spanish painters who painted things from their homes and lives.
"It sort of becomes autobiographical, but in a different way, I guess. So that’s kind of what I’m interested in and pursuing more."
Richardson has also moved to working in egg tempura, a technique he discovered while visiting the National Gallery exhibition in London.
"The guy that got second he had done this egg tempera portrait of his grandmother. And I just was kind of, it’s just got a certain quality that I just really, really like."
The appeal is it enables the painter to render fine details and gives them more control over the material. However, it does require more preparation.
Egg tempura is also more transparent requiring more layering to achieve the depth of colour required.
"But also, it does give you the opportunity, because you’re using just pure pigment."
A down side for many is how quickly it dries due to its transparency which makes it more challenging if it is not right.
"With oil paint you paint something, you can move it around. This is not like that. Like you put it there and it just sits perfectly, which is a bit like, almost like working with pencil maybe. Because a lot of it is built up with little small strokes. "
In recent times he has also begun to use silver and gold leaf in his works. Again a reference to a painter he loves, Jan Van Eyck.
"When you put gold in, it sort of associates with that kind of religious sort of aspect. Like, gives it a, I don’t know what the word is, but sort of a certain quality of symbolism. And I just wanted to emphasise some of the parts of it and give it that kind of quality."
Richardson only paints four or five works a year, describing himself as a slow painter as he develops a work as he goes, often tweaking it.
"I spend hours painting because my studio is at home."
A working dad for many years, as his wife worked, his painting revolved around looking after the children but now they are older he has more time to spend on his work.
"I can just work a pretty solid day, you know, and then I always do a bit of work at night because, because they’re slow and I have to, you know. I’m just always thinking, God, this is taking ages, I better do a bit more work, you know."
"So I kind of got offered commissions and people would sort of buy work directly off me so we were just sort of in the survival mode so it’s quite hard to save up work for an exhibition."
Now feeling he should increase his profile more, despite his natural reluctance, the exhibition at the Eastern Southland Art Gallery came along at the right time.
"So it was just really nice to have a show and remember what that’s like but also just to see them all up and I was just really pleased because I think that it’s quite a strange feeling walking in and seeing all your work on the wall and I think that you just hope that you go in and you feel good about it."
He had known Jim Geddes from the gallery since he introduced him to Tuwhare and the gallery later bought the portrait he did of the poet.
Gallery programmes officer, Marcella Geddes says Richardson, who was born in Gore, has long been on its "hit-list" of artists it was interested in exhibiting.
"As Simon works meticulously, this exhibition has been gestating for some years. Given his connection to Gore, the Gallery’s 40th Anniversary year seemed like the perfect time to bring the show together."
As well as the Tuwhare painting, there are 12 paintings and three drawings, a combination of portraits and still lifes, in the exhibition.
"Most of these paintings that I’ve done have kind of ended up in private collections so they don’t really get seen. So I just thought it would be a really great time to have an exhibition," Richardson says.
To see
Life and Still Life, Simon Richardson, Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, until May 4.
