Artworks

Richenda Court RE (elected ARE 2021, RE 2024)

Peach Horizon

etching & linocut, edition of 25

image size 31.5 x 20.5 cm 

paper size 39 x 29 cm

£160 unframed

purchase here 

Richenda’s prints are inspired by fluid detailed line drawings; progressing subconscious idea’s not knowing where they may lead. This process is the foundation of her practice.

One of the most compelling features of Richenda’s work is the transcendent lyricism with which she represents the human figure. Her figures possess an evanescence and poise that chimes with her interests and former training in dance as well as fine art. Humans, as she imagines them, are presented in states of reflection, reverie, and self-discovery. The use of spare lines, powerfully adumbrate Richenda’s prints encapsulating an inner emotional life. She depicts characters’ experiences of isolation, indecision, longing, sadness, and unity, as if holding a mirror to our essential instincts and needs. Arguably, there is a Jungian sensibility to Richenda’s work – with suggestion of a collective unconscious that impels us to identify spiritually with her ‘everyman’ figures. The neutral figure in ‘Peach Horizon’ focuses out onto the horizon, encased by the hand and birds reminding us of the more spiritual protective world around us.

Richenda uses traditional printmaking techniques in her practice. The etchings are hand cut making use of the etched line, hand aquatint and box aquatint carefully applying a lithographic crayon to graduate the tones. The linocuts are hand cut using traditional Japanese relief tools. ‘Peach Horizon’ comprises of two cut-out lino blocks and two zinc etchings printed in three stages onto dampened paper.

Richenda’s printmaking skills and technique developed for many years at Morley College, London, under Richard Michell and Frank Connolly – esteemed master-printers to Birgit Skiöld. She continues to lecture for Morley and occasionally teaches specialist courses in Museums and Print Studios. Richenda exhibits her work widely across the UK and recently in Beijing, China with the Royal Society of Painter and Printmakers. Examples of her prints are held in the V & A Museum Print and Drawing Collection and the British Library. In 2025, she was interviewed and featured on the front cover of ‘Reframing Women’s Print’ by P L Henderson, the first book on women printmakers.