About Richard

Born in Gainsborough, Saskatchewan in 1961, Richard was raised on the land first homesteaded by his great grandparents, Ebenezer & Fanny Widdifield. Near Creelman, Saskatchewan, it is a place dear to his heart & still farmed by his cousins.

From a very early age, Richard recalls drawing with a passion and remembers the delight of his childhood friends staring over his shoulder as he doodled. By high school (where no art classes were available due to class size) he had progressed to drawing detailed images in notebooks, on desktops and on papers affixed to locker doors and hallway billboards - his first exhibition spaces. Upon graduation from Creelman School in 1979, Richard received the Governor General's Award for community involvement and academic achievement and set off for University with a science career in mind. However after a short time him math and physics classes had been replaced by philosophy and the arts - and his lifelong career began to take shape.

By 1983, while he was still working on the family farm, Richard's diverse artistic talents began to be widely recognized and sought after. He had soon accumulated a great number of commissions, awards and invitations to exhibitions within the Weyburn and Regina areas. Then, after spending three winters visiting and painting in British Columbia, in 1987 Richard moved to Robson, near Castlegar in the West Kootenays of British Columbia - a place he still regards warmly as his second "home".

In 1989 Richard received the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation award (based in Montreal, Quebec) for his work as a promising young Canadian Realist artist. that same year, motivated by the closure of Creelman's historic Billiard Hall and Barber Shop (affectionately known to Creelman residents as "Charlie's")and with funds from the Elizabeth Greenshields Award, Richard traveled extensively around Saskatchewan, visiting and documenting in sketches and photographs some four hundred of the province's many government - registered Heritage Sites. The goal of this 10,000 mile journey was to preserve some of Saskatchewan's disappearing heritage, and remains a strong passion with the artist to this day.

While living in the West Kootenays, Richard became well - known for his many portrait commissions and numerous commissioned murals throughout the City of Castlegar, many of which were completed with the assistance of his partner and fellow artist, Sandra Lee Groepler. In 1990, Richard and Sandra also began doing limited - edition reproduction fundraisers for a wide variety of non-profit Canadian organizations. These were initiated both on the local and national scale for such groups as Robson Community School, Kootenay - Columbia Child Care Society, the Tommy Douglas Calvary Centre in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Association and Rural Dignity of Canada (based in Barachois de Malbaie, Quebec).

Alongside their artistic pursuits, from 1992 onward Richard and Sandra were among a small but dedicated and growing group of people within British Columbia who pioneered the design and use of straw bales as an earth - friendly, alternative building material. This building method was first used with great success by late nineteenth - century Nebraska pioneers and in the last decade and a half has experienced a major revival in all parts of the world.

In 1996 Richard and Sandra moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The following year Richard was commissioned by the Broadway Theatre to produce a poster celebrating the Theatre's Fiftieth Anniversary, and reproductions were created as an ongoing fundraiser for that venue. In 1998, his home town of Creelman commissioned a large, unique mixed - media painting celebrating the history of Creelman School, which closed its doors in 1995. That same year Richard began a series of paintings celebrating the seasons of Saskatoon.

In July of 2000 Richard and Sandra relocated to Radisson, Saskatchewan, where they currently reside. Richard's wealth of straw bale design experience proved invaluable later that year when he began construction on the straw bale studio/passive solar greenhouse building in which he is currently working in Radisson.

In 2003, Richard completed the landmark 8' x 24' mural "Robson Memories", a two - year project, for the new school in Robson, B.C. This grand mural was to become the prototype for his latest project (2005), the Saskatchewan Commemortive Mural.

Throughout the years, the artist concedes, his career has involved a lot of "trial and error, investigation [and] perserverance....There have been lighter moments in the journey, such as my completion of an important automobile commission by the light of a sun-lamp in a Victoria motel bathroom; and ...there have been visceral moments, such as the crib-death of an infant twin which occurred while I was mid-way through a family portrait commission, very early in my career. Throughout , however, the journey continues to provide inspiration and mystery - 'to be embraced', according to Kierkegaard, and I must agree." ¹

For Richard, the field of art is much more than just his chosen career. In his own words: "To say that creating art is my job is an understatement. It is my passion, and drives me in the same inexorable way as Dylan Thomas' "force that through the green fuse drives the flower." The act of creating, of observing, of designing and refining, of movement from blank page to possibility, is engrained in me just such a life force. It is something I do every day, and always will." ²

¹,² From "Robson Memories", published by the artist in 2003.

"Kootenay Idyll"