It has been a while since I last visited Richard Lewis Crozier's studio in Charlottesville. His workspace is tucked away behind a turn-of-the-century home near downtown, not far from The Rotunda at the University of Virginia. The neighborhood, known for its academic residents—mostly professors—is also home to the School of Architecture.
Crozier is a prolific landscape painter and a retired professor at the University of Virginia. He taught there for thirty-seven years and influenced many artists, including Edward Thomas, the subject of an upcoming documentary film. Crozier will serve as the omnipresent narrator in this film, offering insight into Thomas’s work and artistic journey. Thomas's untimely passing in 2021 left many unanswered questions about a career cut short at a young age.
The dialogue with Crozier provides a unique opportunity—one artist presenting another. In doing so, he also reveals aspects of himself, helping to establish a broader perspective on those who, like him, depict small towns and villages in a style that could be framed as a School of Romantic Realism in Central Virginia. Filming with Crozier is already underway at his Charlottesville studio, where we meet weekly. The working title for this film is Edward Thomas by Richard Crozier.
"I started looking at things out in the world and began painting that. Creating art is really about work, discipline, and making stuff. Somebody once said that behind every successful painter are acres of ruined canvases. That’s really true."— Richard Crozier
Richard Crozier
Born in Hawaii, Crozier earned his M.F.A. from the University of California, Davis, where he studied with renowned American artists Wayne Thiebaud, William T. Wiley, and Roy de Forest. While introduced to abstract painting, he also developed a passion for en plein air landscapes, eventually blending these two approaches. His work balances recognizable landscapes with an emphasis on painting as an object—giving texture and surface equal importance to the image itself.
Crozier is particularly drawn to the landscape in flux—the changing seasons, shifting light, and human alterations to the environment. His work has been widely exhibited, with solo shows in California, Texas, New York, Washington, D.C., and throughout Virginia. Additionally, his paintings are held in numerous significant public collections across the country.
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