Richard Bizley

I was born profoundly deaf in 1959 and have had a life-long interest in art and the natural sciences as well as many other subjects. I am a Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists and my paintings have been published in various magazines and books and have been exhibited around the world. Recently I started painting local scenes and these are proving to be very popular, and they sell out as fast as I am painting them.

One interesting thing is that I have synaesthesia and ironically in spite of not being able to enjoy music at all (due to my deafness) I am able to 'hear' things that I see in the form of music in my head. This could be towering cloudscapes, moving or repeating objects such as lights on runways and so on, although I do not 'hear' colours.

It was only recently that I realised this was unusual and a synaesthesia expert visited me and confirmed that I had this condition. I cannot imagine art without being able to 'hear' composition and scenes - I visualise these in my mind before commencing any painting and know how a painting will 'sound' before I finish. So with this gift, I am able to communicate through art the surrounding beauty of where I live through my paintings. With my heightened visual sense due to my deafness and my synaesthesia, I feel my paintings show another dimension not often found in other paintings.

I own the UK’s only Prehistoric and Space art gallery in Lyme Regis and this is where I do all my paintings. It is extremely fortunate that the directors of southwestgallery spotted my new work recently as I am now ready to show my local scenes paintings to the outside world through this website.