History is in the making as we explore a new school of art born only in the last century, indigenous to this region of idyllic light and abundant color – the Caribbean. Caribbean art now touches points all over the world, bright beacons of inspired imagery communicating a world, a culture, unknown to most just a half century ago.

How many have learned of the existence of the coralita, the soursop, mangoes and madras, the brilliant flamboyant trees bejeweling our islands, having seen them first in paintings from our Caribbean world?  For this reason, native son, leader and patriarch, Sir Roland Richardson has committed his life to communicating the Caribbean world through his art.

In the USA, the schools tested the children’s skills to offer direction for higher education. A wise guidance counselor recognized Roland gift, a grace in drawing, which Roland was born with.  “He asked me what were my career intentions, what was I interested in studying or becoming. I said I did not know. So he said, ‘Really? It’s so obvious to me that you are an artist! It shocked me with the force of a first realization or recognition. Now my secret thoughts were revealed and it changed my entire life.”  

Roland entered Hartford Art School in Connecticut when it was housed in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in 1967 and was a five-year degree. Founded in 1877, the Hartford Art School is one of the most recognized American academies of fine art for emerging artists.   It offered a solid foundation and direction that has encouraged Roland through fifty years as a professional artist.  

During his university years, he earned full scholarship and was awarded the Outstanding Student of the Year award all five years, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art with Honors. 

 “The entire region of the Caribbean is blessed with a warm, glorious light manifesting in myriad, vibrant color. This environment enchants, envelops, nourishes and transforms all who are bathed by it. Here color reveals qualities of its inner self that elsewhere are subtle and only hinted at. No wonder that Paradise is still thought to be in this part of the world.”

Roland Richardson

He sensed his role in recording his culture and St. Martin’s natural landscape as being a vital link from the past to the present for generations to come. Roland returned to St. Martin in 1970 after spending his early twenties in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Scandinavia.  Aboard a cargo ship on a long inspirational voyage, he traveled home to begin his lifelong work.  

Fortunate for all, his passion for working from life, continuously turning towards a living situation for his subject, has yielded through the years one of the largest bodies of Caribbean works by a single artist, in original oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal drawing, fine print making in etching, engraving, aquatint, mezzotint, drypoint as well as a precious body of woodcuts, collographs, embossings, batik and stained glass – all focused on the Caribbean world, his world. 

Fifty years later, his creations have found homes on all continents of the world, beacons of the glorious Caribbean light that radiates from each of his canvases.

In the Caribbean, Roland has taken Impressionism to a radiant level.  Responding to the resplendent light that bathes this beautiful region, he brings forth in each creation, a mirror of its time, its living community and the magnificent land surrounded by turquoise sea on which the entire culture is based.

Today, many artists arrive on our shores, live and work, delivering new art to this growing community.  Among them, we offer our gratitude to one of the first, a prodigal son, who has forged a path of awareness for so many others. Sir Roland considers himself a worker in the field of God, struggling daily to grow in his gift and deliver something special for the world to enjoy, to carry into the future as a record of his times.

For fourteen years, he diligently researched and documented many facets of St. Martin’s history, as founding Editor-in-Chief of the popular island magazine, Discover St. Martin-St.Maarten. His articles called forth professional archeologists from Europe and the Caribbean, to help uncover the island’s past and preserve it for the future. His interviews with our elders have forever recorded the times of old, that made way for the new.  

Richardson’s devotion to the restoration of historic sites is best known for his decade-long commitment in the 1980’s to the restoration of Fort Louis, overlooking Marigot Harbor. Here, he worked tirelessly, encouraging other volunteers from the community, to work together, to clear the steep path, grown tall with cacti, to revisit the site, to reassemble the building’s artifacts, including its ancient canons, which were finally airlifted from all points on the island to be returned to their historic setting. They wrote the history, made plaques, built the same stairs that thousands of people have climbed to this magnificent overlook. Through his vision, the lights on Ft. Louis were first lit at night, for all to see.  

Other restoration projects include the reconstruction of the original bridge in Grand Case, just recently completed, based on the beautiful monument created by his great uncle, Gaston Richardson in early 1920’s.  

Another devotion, open to the public since 1998, the Old Marie at #6 rue de la Republique, greets international visitors and the entire local community, including regular tours by young students, to experience this 19th century Creole townhouse, fully restored, with a beautiful hidden courtyard garden, and surrounded by 18th century stone architecture that date back to pre-French Revolution as the original barracks for the French soldiers, who came to build Ft. Louis.  It is now home to an on-going magnificent collection of Sir Roland’s treasured creations, a point where art, culture, nature and history all converge at Roland Richardson Gallery Museum.

Sir Richardson was involved for years in the central planning and the establishment of both the French and Dutch museums on St. Martin. He founded and was President of the Cultural and Historic Foundation that sponsored St. Martin’s first food festivals and ethnic performances, and offered vital support to the emergence of many other community-driven foundations that continue these popular traditions today.

Roland Richardson was awarded in 2007 the honor of Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau, a high level Dutch Royal Decoration from the Court of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and privileged with two private exhibitions before the Queen.  He has also been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the French Government.

 Education

Awards & Achievements

Individual Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions