Richard Lofton

"Group by the Sea" - Abstracted Impasto Seascape by Richard Lofton

1963

Richard Lofton was born in McClellanville, South Carolina on March 23, 1908. At 18, he received a scholarship to the National Academy of Design, but stayed only a few weeks. He then led a Thoreau-like existence, learning to paint in his own way. A veteran of WWII, he settled on the Monterey Peninsula in 1945 and was director of the Carmel Art Association for many years. Lofton was a much loved and well-known painter on the Monterey Peninsula in the 1950s and 60s. Although perhaps best known for his sumptuous and facile plein air landscapes, he also did many portraits that were often commissioned. The evolution of Lofton’s style is evident over the period in which these were painted, as is the animated humanity of the painters, sculptors, photographers and writers who lived and worked on the Peninsula at a particularly fruitful and fascinating time. He died in Carmel, CA on June 1, 1966. Lofton’s pieces are in the Monterey Public Library, the SFMA, Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences and the de Young Museum.

(Biography provided by Robert Azensky Fine Art)