Richard Barnes

Richard Barnes was born in rural South Australia in 1950 and studied fine art at the South Australian School of Art in Adelaide. He taught art in secondary schools for 7 years and then trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and travelled the world teaching TM. Development of consciousness became the primary focus and art practice was secondary. As it turned out development of consciousness is the first prerequisite for the Vedic artist. In the last few years he has practiced the technical side of art and had a desire to raise the standard of his art. The idea was to master the boundaries of technique and then let it loosen up to express more of the unboundedness of life--less photo realism and more suggestion and subtlety. Nevertheless one takes it as it comes to see what direction art takes to find one's own style and fulfil the universal desire of the artist to be different (to be different but without getting weird).

Apart from the art school education mentioned above I studied Vedic art in the texts of Sthapatya Veda (specifically vastu shastra and shilpa shastra). This gave me answers to questions about art that were never answered in art school--eg. what is good art and what is bad, what should and should not be depicted, what are the prerequisites for art??? etc.
Good art is inspiring, uplifting, positive, and pleasant. Scenes of negativity, violence, and distasteful sex play are not fit subjects for the artist because it has an unevolutionary influence on the viewer. The Vedic artist was a yogi first and an artist second--his art was his recreation, a livelihood, a joy. The tradition of the Bohemian artist leading a dissolute lifestyle was not considered helpful to these goals of purity in art.
Quite spontaneously I now prefer simple natural subjects with no political or social commentary, no opinions, no offense or shocking images. Art should be easy to appreciate and understand. It should convey bliss exposing the divinity of mundane objects all around us.

I am planning to build a new house with a gallery/loft to exhibit. Also online is a great way to show to the world at large.