Richard Heley is an artist, poet, songwriter, storywriter and 'live' performance painter. He exhibits his paintings and drawings regularly in the UK and paints as performance in night-clubs and arts events internationally, often inviting audience participation, an activity that has been particularly successful while working with children. His paintings are represented in collections around the world.
Richard is the 1997/8 Farrago UK Poetry Slam Champion, has a growing reputation as a spoken word performer and has toured extensively in the UK and America. He has performed his poetry, storytelling, and songs on BBC Radio, GLR, and radio stations in the UK, Australia and the USA . A qualified art and craft teacher, he is an experienced 'live painting, art, craft and creative writing workshop leader. Richard has produced three volumes of poetry and stories, Lines (1983), Fishing for Chance Answers (1996)] & Jigsaw World (1998) and two albums of poetry and music, Curves(1986) & Waves of love(1996)]. He is the founder and current co-director of Paddington International Poetry Festival which provides a performance platform for some fine emerging UK and International spoken word performers and songwriters.
Richard is resident 'Live' Performance Painter and Poet at Dutchpot a monthly songwriters showcase in West London.

Seema Gill writes: Richard Heley, dropped out of a conventional middle class family lifestyle, a restless soul, returned to the UK from Australia in 1974 to lead a life of contemplation and creativity. Played with rock bands, wrote songs and poetry and drew constantly. There followed a very introverted period studying Buddhism, a unique style of paintings emerged, depicting a world where “everything passes, everything changes, everything born knows the process of ageing.” He dislikes to be compared to any impressionist titans of the past, but he surely paints like a poet and writes poetry like an artist. His paintings represent an eager melancholy depicted in vivid colours, soul searching, coming to terms with desire, broad brush strokes, big figures filled with life’s drama and fantasy. He brought home from Australia the stunning colours of a vast landscape.
“I do not start from any preconceived ideas, rather, it is a letting go process. All the accumulated images, desires, frustrations and mental deliberations are allowed to drop onto the canvas. People often laugh when I tell them that I am going home to talk to my paintings, however when I look at the images, they reveal aspects of my life and in studying those images I learn about myself and so create a dialogue on who I am through what I have done or aspire to be. So painting is a means of coming to terms with being alive, a celebration of its ongoing joy and the struggle to come to terms with our mortality. ‘Yearning for calm in the arms of the storm’. “ Richard remarks.