Richard Hearns paints within a studio surrounded by the landscape of The Burren National Park in County Clare, Ireland. Each painting is an extension of the body and its physical surroundings—earth, sea and sky—materialising the artist’s experiences and memories of colour and natural phenomena. Born in Beirut and raised in Ireland, Hearns also explores the unique aspects of both cultures as points of departure toward mankind’s place within the universe. Through his seemingly abstract paintings, Hearns examines his cultural heritages introspectively and maps the world around him to the surface of a given painting through gesture and colour. The history of modern painting and the status of contemporary art play equally important roles in the signature style of Hearns. Above all, however, Hearns' paintings manifest an entrenched search for the representation of the idyllic. Meditative layers are applied as a physical expression of form drawn from the rhythmic aspects of nature as well as sensations of life in Ireland. His work is palpably physical: marks are extensions of his arm; the larger canvases often mirror his height; and his energy is channeled through the brush onto the surface of the canvas through the medium of oil paint. Both the restrained and exuberant colours of his works express his experiences of nature through its austere reality as well as its sublimity. A given painting of Hearns invites the viewer to participate unequivocally in tracing the human perception of the world, the elements of nature and cultural memory through form and colour. By articulating the canvas through a distinct language of undulation and recession of space within a given composition, Hearns' raw, indecipherable marks often register as multi-layered allusions to the landscape, driving a given painting to the edge of apprehension.