Richard Hosking was born in India but moved with his family to Australia as a young boy. He and his wife Helen live in the hills above Adelaide in a house with a lovely garden, shaded by tall trees with wonderful pieces of sculpture around every corner. Richard is an intuitive artist who paints still lives and scenes from Southern Australia taking influence and materials from the Outback around Adelaide. One recent piece was painted on old, sun-scorched corrugated tin, flattened by cattle trucks and found deep in the Outback. The weathered, distressed quality of the surface formed an important part of the work, providing depth and integrity. Richard has recently started using gold leaf as a contrast to further emphasise the naive quality of his work. Richard is a great believer in the quotation by Picasso, "it can take just a few years practice to draw and paint accurately and a lifetime to rediscover how to see and paint like a child."