His paintings reflect the variety of views that surround this wonderful river as it meanders and carves its way through the Cornish countryside. They reflect the gentler side of Cornwall with its tranquil creeks, sheltered villages and tree-lined hills.

Richard starts his journey with paintings full of ochres and oranges of the grassy landscape around Rough Tor, where the farmhouses and barns with rusting corrugated iron roofs mingle with the rest of the orangey yellow landscape.

Then as glimpses of the River Fowey come into view, Richard's palette changes and the blue of the river is used to contrast with the variety of greeny browns, plums and yellows that make up the foliage covering the steep hills lining the river banks. Once again, not only does Richard observe the variety of colours in nature, but blends the colours of the local buildings and riverside boats in to the patchwork of bold brush marks that make up his distinctive style.

Richard is a master at handling the notoriously difficult medium of gouache that lends itself perfectly to his vision of seeing a pattern in every view he chooses to depict. As a very flat medium, there is no room for creating physical texture; Richard has to achieve this by layering the paint and creating the illusion of different surfaces and depth of field. This is why his work is so interesting to own, as there is always something new to see in his collage of colour and mark making.

The journey ends in the busy harbour of Fowey with paintings full of brightly coloured boats bobbing about in the river estuary and conjuring up idyllic days spent on the water.

This is a show not to be missed by collectors of one of Cornwall's best known and highly sought after painters.

Cath Wallace