BIOGRAPHY
Richard Flynn has been working as an artist since graduating from the Newcastle College of Art in England in 1970. He currently lives in Cambridge Narrows, New Brunswick where he continues to work, primarily in his preferred medium, Unison hand made soft pastels.
His work includes an ongoing focus on the natural landscape, using the grounds of his gallery and studio, Acacia Gallery, as a constant resource. Recent landscape work includes the “Pond Series”, capturing the ever-changing, ecosystems of the two ponds on the property. His active involvement in shaping the natural environment around his studio has been important to his artistic process. Flynn also paints within the community, using his medium to record the character and atmosphere the people and places he visits. Flynn has recently begun a new series of outdoor portraits and figurative works
ACACIA GALLERY
Richard Flynn opened Acacia Gallery in 1993. Its first incarnation was in Gagetown, New Brunswick, where it remained until 1998 when Flynn oversaw construction for a new custom-built gallery and studio near his home in Cambridge Narrows. The space includes 20 acres of land, used as a resource for the production of landscapes. In addition to an existing pond, a second pond was excavated in November 2005 and is in the process of being developed into a performance area.
ENGLAND: 1970 to 1990
In 1970 Flynn was commissioned to paint a portrait of Bob Harbottle, one of the “Cramlington Train wreckers” of the 1928 Depression. He then began a series of paintings of North East England communities and in 1975 spent a summer on the Holy Island of Lindisfame, exploring landscape and architecture throughout the area.
In 1978, Flynn was awarded a bursary by the builders William Leech Limited. As a result of the one-year sponsorship, he held a solo exhibition of 56 paintings at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. Its success led to a further two-and-a-half years sponsorship.
Between 1980 and 1983, Flynn produced a series of portrait and figurative images at the Dudley Miners Institute and received commissions for several town halls and civic centers in the North of England. The work included a portrait of Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, Mr. Bennie Abraham.
In 1983, Flynn was commissioned to paint an exterior mural for Blyth town center. The 36-by-22-foot mural pioneered a new system using acrylic paint on silicate boards. The following year, Flynn took part in an exhibition entitled “Six Artists of the North East”. A traveling exhibition. In 1988, ten works were shown at the Mall Gallery, London in an exhibition titled “Celebration of the North”.
The following year, Flynn competed in the national Laing Landscape Competition, where he won a prize and a place in the annual calendar.
Prior to immigrating to Canada in 1990, with his wife Linda and two children Rachel and Paul, Northumberland County Council and Northern Arts, organized a retrospective exhibition or 54 works at Seaton Deleval Hall.
CANADA: 1990 to present
Shortly after making the move to Canada, in 1991, Flynn produced separate solo shows at the Ring Gallery in Saint John and Gallery 78 in Fredericton. Also at this time, two of his works were accepted for the Marion McCain Exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.
In 1993, Flynn opened Acacia Gallery in the Village of Gagetown, where a solo show was held the following year. Another solo exhibition entitled “Crafting Fire” was the exhibited at The Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1995.
The following year, Saint John’s Festival By the Sea commissioned Flynn to produce works of musical performances at the event. A year later, he became Artist in Residence at RCS Netherwood School in Rothesay, beginning a three-year relationship with the school. As a result of this residency, in 1997, Flynn presented a solo exhibition at the New Brunswick Museum entitled “Time of Our Life”. The same year he was the curator of “Firm Views”, an exhibition for Patterson Palmer Hunt Murphy, Saint John.
In October of 1998, the opening of the relocated Acacia Gallery led to a successful solo exhibit, establishing a permanent base for the production and display of Flynn’s work. The following year, Flynn held a solo show at the Peter Buckland Gallery in Saint John. 1999 Invited Curator “The Art of Business”, an exhibition for Greenarm Management Limited.
Ten years after moving to Canada, in 2000, The City of Saint John Art Gallery and the Frazee Gallery Aitken Bicentennial Exhibition Center held a retrospective exhibition entitled “Richard Flynn, A Survey of the Canadian Works”, highlighting his success in the region. At this time, Flynn began an ongoing series of paintings of the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton.
In 2003, Flynn received a commission to paint the International Varsity Hockey Series for UNB Fredericton. Also that year, a solo show of Flynn’s “Beaver Pond Series” was exhibited at the Peter Buckland Gallery in Saint John.
For a period of two years, Flynn worked on “The Reception”, a large painting to be included in an exhibition celebrating the centenary of Salvador Dali’s birth. The work was completed on display during an exhibition of Dali’s work at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
In 2005, Flynn received a commission by the City of Fredericton to produce a painting for presentation to the Prime Minister, Paul Martin. The work hung at the Prime Minister’s residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa and is now in his personal collection.