SCOTT, Richard

1938 - 2020

Richard Ridsdale Scott was born at 'Moana', Nightingale Lane, Bromley, Kent on 5 May 1938, son of Eric Ronald Scott and his wife Marjorie Lilian née Bradbury (27 June 1907-7 October 1996), who married at the Church of St Lawrence, Skellingthorpe, Lincoln on 1 September 1933. Richard was educated at Bickley Park Preparatory School before boarding at Cranbrook School. In 1950 his family moved to Samphire Cottage at Walberswick, Suffolk and he studied at Lowestoft School of Arts and Crafts 1954-1956 and, after National Service, returned to Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts to specialise in sculpture under Karel Vogel (1897-1961). Some part-time teaching at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts and a return to painting, with a studio in London, which he shared with Camberwell contemporary John Ravera (born 1941), an association which resulted in two shared exhibitions 1962-1963. He married at Potton, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire in July 1962, Lesley Scott née Munkman, and they had two daughters. His major interest was in designing and constructing sports cars and after his move from Camberwell to Walberswick in 1965 he founded Centaur Engineering in a workshop in Halesworth, Suffolk where he designed and constructed 750-formula racing cars. He also initially worked in Bernard Reynolds sculpture room and was a part-time tutor at Ipswich School of Art from 1971, being appointed a full-time lecturer at the school in 1982, a post he held until retirement in 1995. Living and working in Walberswick, this deeply atmospheric place providing the inspiration for much of his work, with a particular interest in the vibrant intensity of dawn and dusk when the silence and stillness of his chosen subjects are least disturbed by the threat of human movement. A founder member and exhibitor at the Suffolk Group of Artists, of which he was president, a member of Ipswich Art Club, being elected president in 2010 and exhibited from Samphire Cottage, Walberswick in 1979, four paintings including 'Morning Mist', 'Nocturne Walberswick' and 'Trees' and was a regular exhibitor including in 2006 an oil, 'Pelargonium'. A previous president of the Southwold Art Circle and has exhibited widely in East Anglia and in London including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition also showing at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours; New English Art Club and had a solo exhibition at Chappel Galleries, Essex in 1999 and at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich in 2002 and at the Peppermint Shed Gallery in 2008. Richard has written on the history of the Walberswick artists' colony 'Artists at Walberswick-East Anglian Interludes 1880-2000' and on the Ipswich Art Society and contributed to several others. Richard Ridsdale Scott died at the James Paget University Hospital, Gorleston, Norfolk on 13 March 2020.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Samphire Cottage, Walberswick, Suffolk
1984 467 Sallow Walk Covert

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Works by This Artist