02 May Artist Spotlights: GL Richardson

GL Richardson’s recent Bless Our Plans and Guide Our Hands delivers the powerful yet subtle impact of a painter possessing creative talent, from its scripture-inspired title to its moody palette and miasmic brushwork. It might come as a surprise, then, to learn that the artist is just on the verge of turning 31 years old. But Richardson is no mere overnight sensation. The attention he’s now receiving has been well earned.

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, Richardson won early recognition in second grade with a pastel rendition of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. “It may still be up on the classroom wall,” he says, laughing. He pursued art throughout high school but chose a more pragmatic career path in advertising, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration on art direction from the University of Missouri, followed by a master’s degree in business with the same focus from Virginia Commonwealth. That led straight to a job in San Francisco with one of the world’s top ad firms. “I was among the movers and shakers who were doing Super Bowl spots, the biggest of the big time. And I just immediately hated it.”

Photo: Quinn Gravier

Richardson found unlikely solace in the Instagram feed of Ranchlands, a ranch management company dedicated to conservation-minded stewardship. After a year in California, he recalls, “One day, I saw a posting that they were hiring for a cattle ranch hand in New Mexico. I reached out and heard back immediately. That was a Thursday. The following Tuesday, I gave two weeks’ notice, then bought a jalopy of a Ford Ranger and drove to the middle of nowhere in New Mexico.” The year-plus he spent there was transformational. Working with the other ranch hands, he says, “I gained self-reliance, internal fortitude, and grit, doing things I never thought I could do before.”

New Fronts and Breadcrumbs | Oil on Wood Panel | 39.75 x 39.75 inches | 2024

Soon, in what little spare time he had, Richardson also began painting again, gaining valuable feedback from his girlfriend Anna Thomas, another Ranchlands hand who now works as a landscape designer. With no end of inspiration all around him, supplemented by personal photography, historical images, and film stills, he composed bright, iconic scenes that at first seemed in the vein of Western Pop, exemplified by such artists as Billy Schenck and Kim Wiggins, the latter of whom encouraged him when they met three years ago.

Bless Our Plans and Guide Our Hands | Oil on Wood Panel | 30 x 24 inches | 2023

Since then, Richardson has evolved a more deeply reflective palette and style, informed by influences as diverse as Georgia O’Keeffe and the psychologically complex paintings of the late British abstract figurative artist Francis Bacon. Recently, he gained representation by the respected Blue Rain Gallery. “Now, I’m strictly a painter,” he says of his working life in the Santa Fe home he and Anna share. “But we’re still good friends with a lot of people in the ranching world and are ready to hop in the truck whenever they’re kind enough to call us and say, ‘Hey, would you give us a hand?’”

Richardson is represented by Blue Rain Gallery, where he’ll be featured in a two-artist show with Dennis Ziemienski from July 26 to August 10 at their Santa Fe, New Mexico, location. He’ll then be in a solo show at their Durango, Colorado, gallery as a First Friday Artwalk feature from September 6 to 20.