Artist's Biography

Idaho artist Gail Richards has been selling her acrylic and oil paintings through galleries, art shows, and online to collectors throughout the United States and in Canada since 1998.  Influenced by Nature, unique characters, and architecture that tells a story, Richards features vibrant color in her paintings.  This style developed while living for 20 years in Southcentral Alaska, where long winters were mostly shades of gray. 

Gail L Richards, born Gail L Vaughan, was the last of five children born in Sacramento, California, to an older couple in June of 1953.  Her father was a realtor, and her mother - herself a painter - stayed home to raise children.  She nurtured Gail's love of the Arts by providing opportunities, lessons, and supplies for both Gail's visual and musical interests.

As an adult, most of Richards' creative interests centered around writing and photography.  She published feature articles and photographs through Anchorage Daily News, Homer News, Fisherman's Journal, ALASKA magazine, and Williwaw Publishing through 2009.  She was also a staff reporter twice at The Seward Phoenix Log during her 14 years living in that town.  It was a local newspaper there for decades, owned by Alaska Newspapers.

As a member of the Seward Mural Society, Richards painted on several murals that adorn buildings there to this day.  She also supported local Arts by painting backdrops for high school plays or judging art shows at public schools and the annual Kenai Fjords National Park art exhibit.

It was after some of Gail's own children were grown and on their own that she began taking her love of painting seriously.  In 1998, after several oil and watercolor classes, she was encouraged by one of her instructors to exhibit paintings at an art show in Seward.  She sold her first two paintings there. Encouraged, Gail continued to exhibit and sell at several galleries and venues across Kenai Peninsula and Online before moving to McCall, Idaho in 2009. 

In McCall, Gail exhibited her paintings at Gallery Fifty-Five, Studio 616, House of Color, Roseberry Art Festival, the annual Bistro 45 Courtyard shows, her own website, and others.  One of her paintings created with knives was chosen by Mother Earth Brewing Company for their Spring season, limited edition IPA art beers in 2019.

Moving to a rural community in 2016 made it difficult to transport Gail's large paintings to and from galleries and shows in McCall and Boise, where she exhibited at Water's Edge Gallery in Riverside Hotel, so Richards began marketing most of her work online to collectors she'd established since 1998.  A few of her pieces currently hang at Unique Antler Design and Gallery in Riggins, Idaho.

"At this stage, I'm feeling a shift in my work's focus," Richards recently said.  "For the past 18 years I've used heavy-bodied acrylics to paint with.  I feel a strong need to paint with oil again and focus on subjects that have made this region such a draw for visitors over and over again for generations."