| Richard Freeman was
born in Leicester, England. He attended school in
Leicester, and won scholarships to attend Lutterworth
and Leicester College of Art. When he turned 18, he
enlisted with the Royal Air Force, and was stationed in
Northern Ireland, where he spent his spare time painting
the landscape. Upon his release he began to work for an
advertising agency, instead of his father’s
engineering firm, and continued to improve his style,
taking evening courses. Freeman immigrated to Canada in
1955, attracted by the open space, and fulfilling a
childhood dream. He settled in Ottawa, with his wife and
daughter, working as a titling artist for a film
company. However, they quickly moved west. They
purchased a small piece of land, on which they raised
horses. The scenery and lifestyle of the West deeply
influenced Freeman, because they were what he had always
been looking for.
Freeman's firsthand experiences
lend reality to his pieces. His attention to light is
what attracts viewers to his paintings and his deep
understanding of line and perspective, shadow and light.
Avoiding romantic cliche in his pieces, Freeman paid
close attention to the roughness of the rural West; his
pieces convey a sense of discipline and strength needed
in the work. However, they also convey a sense of
freedom in the wide spaces and overwhelming landscape.
His knowledge in anatomy, that of both human and horse,
allowed for detail and accuracy in his figures. Freeman
is the only Canadian founding member of the National
Western Artists Association, in Lubbock, Texas, where he
won an award for his work in 1982. |
