Richard Claremont (born 3 May 1965) is a

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

-based

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n painter. His style is expressionistic and related to

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. Claremont worked for the

Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post o ...

from 1988 to 2017 and made sketches while delivering mail. He became known as 'the painting postie' in media.

Early life and education

Claremont was born on 3 May 1965 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. He attended

Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School is a private school, private, Comprehensive School#Australia, comprehensive, co-educational, non-denominational, Waldorf education, Steiner Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondar ...

. While at school he worked at Sydney's Artflow Graphics studio but decided to study Visual Arts instead of Graphic Design and entered

Sydney College of the Arts The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) is a contemporary art school that was a faculty of the University of Sydney from 1990 until 2017, when it became a school of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Until the end of 2019, the campus was locat ...

where he studied from 1983 to 1985. Claremont displayed his works in a group exhibition of 4 painters from the College in 1985, earning a positive review from

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

's art critic John McDonald. Between 1985 and 1987 he travelled throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, staying in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

for two years.

Art career

In 1988, Claremont returned to Australia and started working for

as a

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

serving

City of Shellharbour The City of Shellharbour is a local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The city is located about south of Sydney and covers the southern suburbs of the Wollongong urban area centred on Shellharbour and it had ...

area. What started as a summer job, became his main occupation for almost thirty years. Claremont found inspiration on the city streets, making sketches while delivering mail. In 2015 he won ANL Maritime Art Prize awarded by

The Mission to Seafarers The Mission to Seafarers (formerly The Missions to Seamen) is a Christian welfare charity serving merchant crews around the world. It operates through a global Mission 'family' network of chaplains, staff and volunteers and provides practical, em ...

. Claremont's works are on permanent display at

Bluescope BlueScope Steel Limited is an Australian flat product steel producer that was spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2002. History BlueScope was formed when BHP Billiton spun-off its steel assets on 15 July 2002 as BHP Steel. It was renamed BlueScope ...

Visitors Centre at

Port Kembla A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

. He was also one of Australia's contemporary artists featured at Donald Keys' ''Art Heads'' series of portraits.

Awards

Exhibitions

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Claremont, Richard 1965 births Living people Australian contemporary painters Artists from Sydney Australian landscape painters University of Sydney alumni