From the Icelandic wilderness to the fiery horizons of Thailand and towering mountains of Norway to spectacular Scotland, his atmospheric scenes allow viewers to escape from everyday life, creating a sense of intrigue in any living space. Richard is the only artist to be creating art in this style, and his incredible landscapes are so detailed that they are often mistaken for photographs, when in fact each one has been meticulously painted by hand using his reverse painting technique.
As the only fine artist successfully creating artworks in this style, Richard has become a part of the history of the glass art form, which dates back to Roman times and can also be seen in the Gothic period. Unlike canvas, glass interacts with the light, bringing his works to sparkling life.
“I'm a bit shocked that people do think my paintings are photographs, but it's great,” says Richard. “It's hard to understand how a painting has been painted backwards, because you're only seeing the front, but when people see the window in which is in the back of the painting, they get to see just what’s on the back!”
Richard is the very forefront of the technique of painting on glass, one of the reasons being that he’s always pushing his delicate and precise skills more and more and pioneering new ways of working. He applies and manipulates the paint using fine brushes and special tools of his own invention, made to his own exacting specifications, leading to the creation of stunning, atmospheric landscapes in his Wimbledon studio.
The work he creates is incredibly labour-intensive from start to finish. “Shading colour is one of the finer things to do, and black and white is even harder,” says Richard. “It takes so much time and what people don't see is how many times I'm cleaning the brush. When I work across the painting, I need to constantly change the colour on the brush and then clean it and then start again. So, each brush stroke is cleaned whereas normally you'd have a brush stroke and just keep painting and blending”.
It's not just creating the artwork which takes a very long time, the pieces need to dry correctly too; he's been known to go to his studio at the end of the garden at 3am to check the process of a piece. Richard is always finding challenging subject matter, too; the more difficult the better. “It's always the things that I can't paint, or it seems impossible to paint, that I've wanted to paint the most,” he says, “which is why I paint the Milky Way. It’s a way of testing myself and developing my technique. With all the new styles of work I do, it’s a matter of experimenting with new ways of working. With the Milky Way, it's a whole different bag of tricks, so I've had to work out how to take paint away, and add it in.”
The exhilarating unpredictability of nature has taken Richard around the world, and his family are very much part of these trips – and his art. His wife and two children are often symbolised in his paintings by four birds or stars. “My son and daughter have become very interested in the Milky Way and how it works, and the more places we've been in the world where you can see it, the more they've been obsessed by it. “It's a family business that I'm in - it's not just me painting, it's what the whole family are doing; where we go on holiday, what we're looking at, and how interested I can make the kids in my work. We have a telescope and we're looking at stars and seeing what the universe is all about. It's great to bring their excitement as well as mine into the work.
“They’re starting to want to design my pictures themselves and to be a part of it; they see me doing it every day in my studio and they just wanted more Milky Way and I looked for ways to paint it, and how to put them into the works. Sometimes I’ve put four birds in, or four stars close together and I've done lightning strikes, which have four parts to them as well. Putting the family first is what we're all about but putting the family into the picture is even nicer as well because they feel part of it all.”
Richard has always shown a talent for art. When he took his A-levels, he was awarded the highest grade for Art in the country. The importance of detail in Richard's work has always been there, too; as a teenager he'd spend a whole summer painting a single subject. Richard studied Fine Art at university, and after pursuing an initial short art career, he decided to get a job working in motorsports. This role took him around the world and influenced his future art - he saw an incredible sunset in Argentina which he subsequently painted a few years later.
Richard returned to art after he had a car accident. He took his work to galleries and they sold so well that he soon found he couldn’t get hold of new canvases fast enough. This is when his father suggested he paint on some leftover glass panels he had, and so Richard's signature style was born; his immense craft and artistry can now be seen in every inch of his artwork.
The collection spans from sunrises to sunsets, from the mesmerizing night auroras to the tranquil 'silver rivers' (Milky Way), all under majestic cloud formations with each moment offering a new weather pattern and view.
Portraying moments of reflection and contemplation, Journey Beyond captures the beauty of different times of day while emphasizing the enduring essence of adventure.
While working in the motorsport industry, skyscape painter Richard was regularly exposed to scrap pieces of glass. Instead of buying expensive canvasses, he recycled old glass windows from his parents' garage and began to experiment with oil stains and the reflection of light. It was a eureka moment for the artist. By using glass as a canvas for his paintings, Richard creates a much smoother gradient of colour and a broader spectrum of shades.
Mixing the oils on the glass as a palette intensifies the colours. When starting out as an artist, Richard wanted to achieve something that wasn't the norm, so over the years has perfected his own unique method of reverse painting. Beginning with the background and adding detail in layers, this technique requires great concentration and skill. He juxtaposes detailed sections with an unfocused background, which works exceptionally well with the clouds and trees of his stunning skyscapes. Despite honing this skill for over a decade, he reveals there is still much to learn and he is on a constant learning curve.
The drying process for oils painted on glass can be very lengthy. To combat this, Richard concentrates on around five paintings at once, with each artwork at a different stage of the drying process. This allows for intricate scalpel work or layered painting to take place whilst others are drying.
On each of Richard Rowan’s Unique and original artworks is a transparent viewing panel to allow collectors to see the incredible reverse painting process behind their creation.
Based on the Scottish Highlands and inspired by a family trip to the Isle of Skye and Dornie last year, Richard has challenged himself to build colour in the foreground of his artworks for the first time. Richard is a true lover of the natural world and is passionate about capturing as much of its beauty as he can, and his new limited edition artworks truly create a sense of wanderlust and escapism.
Richard Rowan’s incredible artistry comes to Castle Fine Art once again with more stunning mixed media artworks in the Forever More collection based on his love of the Finnish wilderness. In a fusion of a print and an original, a monochromatic silhouette has been printed onto the glass and then returned to Richard’s skilled hands to paint he intricate background layers.
The result is a breathtaking series of artworks that beautifully showcase the ever-changing splendour of various seasons and timeless moments within the same captivating setting. Richard aims to allow collectors to escape from everyday life, and these atmospheric scenes act as a reminder to us all that no matter where you are, there is always growth and change.
Richard Rowan’s skills as a painter on glass and as an observer of the natural world collide beautifully again with his latest collection, Infinite. The stunning artworks show the night sky in the exquisite detail which makes Richard’s works so compelling and easy to lose yourself in. 'Zenith’, ‘Utopia’ and ‘Solar Fields’ are available as both original pieces and limited edition artworks.
The Forever More collection sold out in under an hour of it's launch, so it's save to say it's one of our collectors favourites. The artworks in this beautiful collection are a fusion of a print and an original, making each one a truly unique piece. A black and white silhouette was printed onto glass and then returned to Richard to paint the detailed background layers. The result is more breathtaking artworks showcasing the magnificent beauty of various seasons and times in the very same location.
Focusing on reflection and family, this ethereal collection also offers a wide range of colour palettes. From fiery red to black and white, the artist has used his expertise and imagination to transform Scottish landscapes into, what he considers to be, the perfect view. In the collection, Richard hopes to evoke a sense of escapism as well as the paradoxical sense of isolated togetherness.
A family unit in secluded landscapes creates a positive feeling of unity and freedom and the tree in the painting ‘Better Days’ represents both himself in contemplative isolation but also his family tree. As with his previous paintings, the birds in Richard’s artworks represent people who are important to him and his choice to incorporate birds into a night scene was at his daughter’s request, as she wanted to be ‘included’ in the painting.
Synonymous with the witching hour, twilight is a fleeting glimpse of tranquillity when things are not quite as they seem. This ethereal crossover between light and dark, night and day, is captured by oil painter Richard Rowan in his powerful collection, Twilight.
Describing his new artworks as “nature’s silhouettes” the artist has captured the majesty of the sky from a completely different perspective.
Nature's endless beauty is captured in a new edition of Richard Rowan's Infinite collection with two new monochrome works depicting the Milky Way.
In 2024, we're all trying to do our bit for the environment and make greener choices. The perils of fast fashion are well-documented, and now collectors are turning their attention to the quality and longevity of art they're buying. To celebrate Earth Day 2024, we look at the connection between the art world and the environment.
Our monthly series of art insights is brought to you by Washington Green Fine Art’s founder, Glyn Washington. In February 2022, we went behind the scenes with the celebrated glass painter to celebrate his new collection.
Dating back to the 12th century, this genre is associated with the spookiest night of the year. But with our twisted collection of artworks, you can enjoy the dark side all year round.
With many of us working from home, it's the best time to spruce up your working space with a limited edition or original artwork.
Discover the psychology and power of colour with our handy guide, featuring some of our most popular artists.
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