About — Richard Thurston - Mediums, Fine Art Painting / Fine Art Photography

Richard Thurston | Profile

**Bachelor of Design (Hons), Massey University, New Zealand**
Richard Thurston is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, fine art photography, and mixed-media works.
His work explores the unknown through ambiguous colour fields, abstracted seascapes, and photographic imagery. Central to his practice is an interest in mystery, perception, and the liminal spaces that exist between what is seen and what is felt.
Richard often juxtaposes contrasting elements—light and dark, calm and tension, abstraction and representation—to challenge both the subjects themselves and the viewer's understanding of them. Through this process, he creates works that invite contemplation and encourage a shifting perception of the familiar.
Working predominantly at a large scale, Richard aims to immerse viewers in environments where imagination, memory, and curiosity can flourish. Rather than providing fixed narratives, his works create open-ended experiences that allow each viewer to discover their own interpretations and connections within the work.
His practice is driven by a fascination with what lies beyond immediate understanding and the transformative possibilities that emerge when we engage with the unfamiliar.

Key Influences

Richard's work is informed by the legacy of American Abstract Expressionism, particularly the monumental colour field paintings of Mark Rothko. Rothko's large-scale canvases first appealed to Richard as a viewer, but later revealed themselves as something greater—an experience that transcended the physical artwork itself.

Standing before these vast works, he became aware of colour shifting, pulsing, and seemingly breathing, transforming static paint into something alive and immersive. This encounter reinforced the power of scale, atmosphere, and colour to create emotional resonance and demonstrated how an artwork can become a space for contemplation, introspection, and emotional transcendence.

Richard also draws inspiration from the gestural energy of Willem de Kooning, the physicality and scale of Jackson Pollock, the atmospheric colour fields of Barnett Newman, and the profound simplicity found within the work of Ad Reinhardt.

Beyond painting, Richard is influenced by photographers who transform landscape into emotional and psychological space, including Hiroshi Sugimoto and Richard Misrach. Their ability to distil vast environments into meditative and contemplative imagery continues to inform his approach to abstraction and perception.

These influences converge in Richard's own practice, where photography, painting, and material exploration become vehicles for investigating mystery, memory, and the unknown. Through scale, colour, atmosphere, and juxtaposition, he seeks to create immersive experiences that encourage viewers to slow down, reflect, and discover their own meanings within the work.