Tutor and Alum, Will Riding, exhibits at John Moores Painting Prize 2020

Our colleague William Riding is exhibiting his painting The Geometer at the recently opened John Moores Painting Prize 2020 Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

The prize is one of the UK’s foremost painting competitions. The exhibition can be viewed online on the John Moores Painting prize webpage.

Before the pandemic, William was working on workshop development in the desert oasis town of AlUla, Saudi Arabia. The regions landscape, people and heritage has inspired him to make a series of paintings.

“The making process for the painting started with sourcing the pigments with other tutors. The majority of the colour palette in the painting has been made from earth, mineral and organic matter foraged from the desert of AlUla, refined by hand, taken through a process and made into a unique water colour range.

We relied on locals to guide us around the regions extraordinary landscape of wind eroded mountains. I was delighted to see the shifting landscape was dotted with perfectly formed circle and arcs, inscribed in the desert sand when anchored dried grass is blown by the wind.

I wanted to make a painting of someone caught in a contemplative moment by mimicking these naturally formed circles. Thankfully for me, our drivers were very willing models for the paintings.”