completely and entirely consume a person. After 5 years of frenetic action, travel, endless new horizons, speed and fumes, it was the decision to leave the motor racing world that really made Richard Rowan as an artist. While still involved with Motor Racing Richard Rowan had started to paint intricate work on glass. Apparently due to a lack of more traditional material, but perhaps also as a personal challenge. After he left, he found himself applying the same techniques to his paintings of the landscape around his home.
The process of painting a Richard Rowan original painting could not be more different to life on the race track. Richard Rowan original paintings are painted using oil paint on glass. This is a process that requires infinite skill and patience. It slow, painstaking and complicated, but ultimately very rewarding, the resulting work being very much worth the effort. Richard starts an original painting by cleaning a piece of new glass, and setting it up on his work surface so that he can se the front, but also reach behind to paint, because Richard Rowan paints his original paintings on the reverse of the glass. He has to reach around with his paintbrush to the back of the glass. Not only this, but he has to paint the image back to front, starting with those elements that would usually be added to a painting last, the foreground, and highlights. In addition, Oil paint takes a very long time to dry. Richard has chosen a very difficult process, but one which, when mastered, produces marvellous results.