Richard Firth

Richard Firth is internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest marine painters. He was born on February 27, 1971 in Yorkshire, England, grew up in Hull and studied in Kingston with his father and two brothers. He is primarily self-taught as an artist, having the ability to draw realistically from a very early age. He taught himself to paint dynamic paintings of racecars, before being given marine art instruction from Brian May. May introduced Firth to the marines of Stephen Renard and Stephen Dews, two artists who highly influenced Firth’s artistic direction to realism.

His first artistic effort was to study and paint race cars in and around the London area and many of those paintings were purchased by publishers and printed in limited edition prints of 500 copies. Some of his paintings of cars were published in Motor Sport in 1998.

In 1996, Firth met the late Brian Mays (British marine artist) and as a result of his influence, he began to paint square-rigged sailing ships.  Firth has taken a keen interest in past America’s Cup races and other famous yacht races along the coast of the United States and England. As Firth studied marine paintings of the 19^th and 20^th century, he was highly influenced by the work of British marine painter Montague Dawson and the earlier work of Abraham Hulk.

As an ardent student of art and ships, the artist developed his painting techniques after finding inspiration from the canvases of John Wilson, Carmichael (1799-1868), Thomas Somerscales (1842-1927) and Montague Dawson (1895-1973).  More important, he became a keen observer of all types of boats and ships as they glided through water on the high seas, and he is now an avid sailor who understands how weather conditions alter the way a ship sits upon or moves through active seas.

Richard Firth is one of the finest marine painters alive today because he paints accurately ships at sea with an eye for historical correctness, while at the same time his colors are accurate to nature and his drawing techniques and realistic details are superb.