Richard Bawden sadly passed away on 31 May 2024. Read a tribute to Richard written by fellow NEAC member Richard Sorrell. 

Richard Bawden NEAC RE RWS (1936-2024) was a painter, printmaker, designer, and illustrator, with his work included in books, posters, murals, mosaics, textiles, engraved glass, furniture, cast-iron seats (for which he cut the patterns himself).


Born in 1936, in Braintree, Essex, he was son of the renowned artist Edward Bawden, who taught Richard how to cut lino. Richard attended Chelsea and St Martin’s Schools of Art, and during his time of National Service he was able to attend Winchester School of Art. He then began studying graphic design at the Royal College of Art, before transferring to learn printmaking under Julian Trevelyan, Alistair Grant and Edwin Ladell where he first began etching.

 

Richard's paintings were drawn from life, and as a printmaker, he worked predominantly in etching and lino. He was attracted by atmosphere, oddity, pattern and the strangely austere, which he found in the world around him. Richard lived in Suffolk and was frequently drawn to the Suffolk Coast to paint and to create prints. His many works of domestic interiors and scenes from his garden, frequently featuring his cats, show a record of his life there, where he lived with his wife, potter, Hattie Bawden.

 

Richard was commissioned to produce posters for the London Underground, and he also created murals for restaurants, book illustrations and editions of prints for Curwen and Editions Alecto.

 

He had over 40 one-man exhibitions and his work is in numerous private collections and features in many public collections including that of the V&A and Tate.

 

He was also a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, the Royal Watercolour Society, the Society of Designer-Craftsmen and was a former chairman of the Gainsborough’s House Print Workshop in Sudbury.

 

METHOD OF WORKING

All Richard’s work started with drawing: quickly in a sketchbook, a carefully considered watercolour, an imaginative design for a print or often ‘just a scribble’ of a cat. His method of working was not always a logical sequence to realise an idea from within his imagination: much time was spent thinking through how to capture the spirit of the work he was creating. For painting, he usually drew a grey line with a dip pen, over which he laid colour; always paying attention to detail whether it was architectural, boats, plants or an interior. His linocuts were very disciplined with everything worked out before he took up his Stanley knife to start cutting. His etching was complex; a freely drawn line, aquatint and deeply bitten areas on the plate, creating atmosphere with contrasts and texture. When printing, he mixed all his own inks from jars of coloured pigment.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

1985 Moved to Suffolk and married Hattie (Harriet Rose). Working full time as a painter and printmaker. Painted murals in four Suffolk restaurants, designed cast iron furniture and completed engraved glass commissions for two Essex churches.
1963-85 Commissions for illustrations, posters & graphic work, part time teaching, a frequent exhibitor at the RA Summer show and many exhibitions of his own work
1963 Married Jean Stanley; two children (Philip 1964, Louise 1965)
1950-1962 Educated at Bryanston School, Chelsea School of Art, St Martin’s and the Royal College of Art (Graphic Design and Printmaking)

 

OTHER SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (elected 1981)

Royal Watercolour Society (elected 1995) 

Gainsborough's House Print Workshop (chair 1983-1991)

 

SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS & PRIZES

Four printmaking prizes at Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Spring exhibitions

 

PAST EXHIBITIONS

2016 Fry Art Gallery - 80th birthday retrospective 
2013 Bircham Gallery, Holt. Special exhibition for their 25th anniversary. Also regular exhibitions over the previous 25 years
2000 & 2010 Fry Art Gallery
2007, 2005 Chappel Gallery
1996 Gainsborough’s House. 60th birthday exhibition with Richard Batterham
1991, 94 Galerie Latteman, Darmstadt
1980 Germany Heidelberg

 

PUBLICATIONS

Contributor to RWS & RE books: 'The Watercolour Expert' (2004); 'Watercolour Masters - Then and Now' (2006); 'Printmaker’s Secrets' (2009); 'Watercolour Secrets' (2014)
‘Richard Bawden: His Life and Work’ (Malcolm Yorke, Fleece Press, 2016) ISBN 9780993498503 & 9780993498510

 

FURTHER READING AND RESOURCES