Meet The Artist

“As a child, I liked to stay in the orchards and the forest near our house in the suburbs of Paris. I was fascinated by the perfection of nature and certain to find the essence in it “.

Richard Colombel began painting at the age of 11 in a local school. He was guided there by the two ascetics of painting: André Lauran, from the school of Lyon (creator of Sanzism), and Véronique Véron.
At the age of 16, he studied graphic arts, art history and bas-relief. Then was accepted at the école nationale des arts décoratifs de Paris. There he studied volume and space. He wrote a thesis on a new vision of architectural space.

In parallel to his studies, he works for the Chelles museum as an illustrator for the discovery of 700 Merovingian sarcophagi. Every week, he alternates between drawings of nudes and sketches of dissected corpses in the company of medical students from the Salpêtrière.
“Through the drawing, I question the object and what it evokes in me. Drawing a corpse becomes a real reflection on the very condition of our being”.

“Since the walks in the woods of my childhood, this obsession with knowledge has never left me. I had the great chance to meet an authentic master, Guendune Rinpoche, when I was 19 years old. He gave me the right keys to tackle this search for knowledge. Little by little I understood the importance of such a discipline and what it could bring to lead my life and my art, that’s why I decided to take the plunge “.

After graduating in decorative arts, he went on a Buddhist retreat in a hermitage on the plateaux of the Auvergne. During this period, he only saw his 13 fellow hermits and his master, practicing meditation from 5am to 10pm. This research occupied him for 6 and an half years, during which he kept away from the world of art. “Meditation is an open door to the infinite creative aspect of our mind. In this space there is no judgment or control. Accessing this dimension is certainly a great help to complete an artist’s sensibility”.

Back to the worldly life, he is interested in architecture. As an assistant, he gets used to the language of plans. He worked on several major projects for temples, monasteries and universities, first in France, then ten years in India and Nepal.
“Architecture is a developed art of drawing. When drawing creates the illusion of space, architecture is its projection. Inventing a circulation, a breath is fascinating because here the spectator evolves in the created work”.

In 2012, he moved to Berlin and got married. He finally decided to take up painting again, his first love.
Today in his new studio located in the volcanos of Auvergne, his subjects have changed, his strokes and colours are full of strength, the fruit of an energy that never seems to dry up.