Ella W. Richardson Fine Art has been offering exceptional artwork from American and international artists since 2001. The range in its catalogue includes impressionist, realist, contemporary abstracts and black-and-white photography, as well as porcelain, jewelry, bronzes and etchings, and paintings from renowned Charleston Renaissance artists.

Featured here are mixed-media paintings by Kevin Chadwick. A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1976, Chadwick’s career has taken many artistic turns. He began as an illustrator while still in school, working for a national glassware company and illustrating for corporations like McDonald’s, Burger King, Hallmark Cards and Twentieth Century Fox.

Today, he focuses on manipulating mixed media into his paintings. He typically begins with a figure—often inspired by someone he sees or a photograph. Using Photoshop, he builds figures—using a head from one image, a hand from another and an arm from a third. After transferring the outline to the canvas, he begins the pattern work with small brushes, then scrubs in facial features and skin tones, allowing the underlying patterns to peek through.

Chadwick is widely recognized for his engaging and soulful African American figures. He has lived in the historic city of Lynchburg, Virginia, for over 25 years.