Richard Saunders

I was born in 1946. I was haunted by surreal dreams as a child, though I’d not discovered the surrealist movement yet of course. It seemed everyone in our family created art. My mother worked for Raphael Tuck, the greetings card manufacturers. My dad was a keen amateur, and various aunts and uncles were, too. My older brother was also talented but gave up art to concentrate on science, and is now an author.

When I discovered surrealism in my teenage years, it became a lifelong obsession. Mere skill, design and colour were never enough. There had to be some other element. Imagination. Creativity. Surrealism!

I painted too slowly to make a living from surrealism, so turned to advertising to keep my family fed. I worked my way up to Creative Director, and became a partner in a small agency. Now retired, I can return to my first love, surrealist painting, and as a keen photographer, create surreal montages, too.

Most of my early surrealist works were sold, so I have made a guess on some captions, and sizes are approximate. Measurements are in inches, height first followed by width.