About
Richard Sparks
Sparks was born in Fort Worth, Texas and received his Bachelor of Architecture Design from Texas A&M University. He was then awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Art Center College of Design, California, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, with Distinction.
There, he met and married fellow artist, Barbara Sparks, also a graduate of Art Center.
The newlyweds traveled to Europe, where they successfully broke into the freelance illustration market. After falling in love with Holland, they set up a permanent residence in Amsterdam, where they worked steadily in illustration for three years before deciding to return to the States to start their family. Richard and Barbara moved to Fairfield County, Connecticut, where both began working in the busy New York City art market.
Richard immediately started receiving commissions in New York City for major periodicals and publishing houses. Five of his twenty-five commissioned portraits for TIME magazine are in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Another of his paintings for TIME, for Harvard’s 300th year anniversary, is now in the permanent collection of the Harvard Club in New York City.
Sparks is honored to have his work represented in the permanent collections of ExxonMobil, Academy of Art College in San Francisco, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Texas A&M University, Time-Life, the National Archives, Seattle Opera and numerous private collections across the country.
His paintings have been reproduced as limited edition prints and posters by the Heritage Fine Arts Print Society; the Seaport Association of Norwalk, Connecituct; CIGNA; the Seattle Opera; and the Bundespost/German Postal Service.
The United States Postal Service commissioned Sparks to do seven postal designs for their Great Americans stamp series.
Sparks enjoyed the work-adventure of a lifetime when ExxonMobil sent him to the Yukon to the Northwest Territory to do a series of watercolors for their corporate magazine, The Lamp.
ExxonMobil then commissioned Sparks to do twenty-four large drawings of their oil and gas fields in Texas. These pieces are in the permanent collection of ExxonMobil's regional headquarters.
Sparks' work has been featured in numerous prestigious national exhibitions, including
- New England Watercolor Show, Boston
- Pennsylvania Watercolor Society
- Salmagundi Club National Show
- Adirondack National Exhibition
- Poudre Valley National Exhibition, Fort Collins, Colorado
- American Artist Professional League Grand National Exhibition, NYC
- Allied Artists of American Exhibition, NYC
- Grand Exhibition, Akron, Ohio
- Art of New England, Old Lyme Art Association
- Salon 2005 Greenhouse Gallery National Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas
- 40th Annual Open Southern California Exhibition 2005 - Honorable Mention