Richard Turner (29 December 1940 – 11 January 2013), also known as Turneramon, was a British artist and poet.[1]
Life and work
Richard Turner was born in Derby, England and was educated at Bemrose Grammar School, before moving to study at the School of Navigation in Warsash, Southampton. In 1958, he went on to join the Merchant Navy, as a Navigation Cadet Officer, sailing with Ellerman Lines. In 1960, he decided on a career change, and enrolled at the Derby College of Art. Turner won the J. Andrew Lloyd scholarship for Landscape, enabling him to study at the Royal College of Art in London, from 1963. There, he was tutored by Carol Weight and Sir Peter Blake. He graduated in 1966 with an Associate of the Royal College of Art Degree, as well as prizes in Life Drawing, Life Painting, and Landscape Painting.
In 1973, Turner returned to England, lecturing at Salisbury College of Art for three years, before being re-employed in Egypt by the University of Chicago, for a further four years. During this time he made full scale tracings of all columns in hypostyle hall of Luxor Temple.[2][3] In 1980 he moved to the USA; built a split-level chalet style house in Big Bear, California, and ran his own gallery, named Minnelusa Gallery, on the shores of Big Bear Lake. He also worked as a graphic designer with Treasure Chest Advertising, based in Los Angeles.
Four years later, Turner returned to the United Kingdom, and briefly lived in Edinburgh, before moving south, to become a teacher at Vandyke Upper School in Leighton Buzzard, for five years. He returned to Scotland in 1989, and ran an "art holiday" home business from Park House in Kirkcudbright, as well as lecturing part-time in various colleges and schools. In 1993, Turner met Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, at the opening of Tolbooth Art Centre in Kirkcudbright. Prince Philip commented on Turneramon's work saying it looked "refreshingly different".
Style and influences
Richard Turner's work is mainly figurative painting, including some nudity, within Arcadian landscape settings similar to the compositions in renaissance and mannerist art. Turneramon's first stay in Egypt had a significant effect on his painting style and content. His change from hard edge abstraction to synthetic renaissance is evident in his 5×7 ft. painting, The Resurrection of Tutankhamen, leading to his work being labelled post modernist.
Publications and notable works
1972 – Commissioned Mural for The Mummy Room in the British Museum, together with fellow epigraphic artist, Reg Coleman.
1978 – The Resurrection of Tutankhamen: Influenced by English scholar and mystic Om Seti.[4]
Publications
Ka Ka Ranish and the Twins of Time
The Twins of Time and the Golden Grotto
The Twins of Time and the Bridge of Time
The Twins of Time and the Seven Seas of Time
The Sacred Eyes of Time (#1 Trilogy of Nethertime)
The Obelisk of Time (#2 Trilogy of Nethertime)
The Twins of Time (#3 Trilogy of Nethertime)
Arcadian Sunset (a collection of Turneramon's paintings and poetry)
Exhibitions
Group shows
1962 "Artists of Promise", Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, UK
