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Quoted from the text of the "Richmond was born in Southwest Virginia. She studied photography at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, and journalism at American University in Washington, D.C. She worked for several years as a reporter-photographer for the Roanoke WorldNews and the Bristol Herald-Courier. Her exhibits have included chemography and what she calls "straight shooting," which reflect her travels to Greece, Italy, Europe, and throughout Southwest Virginia. "My greatest influence is the old masters," she says, citing Michelangelo as her favorite artist and Picasso as "extremely strong. When Richmond began painting with darkroom materials some 25 years ago, she first tried to paint with light. "I put a cone of cardboard around a pencil flashlight to try to get a thin line, but the light spill was too much," she explains. "When I dipped a brush into developer, the process finally began to unfold, and the results were exciting. It still took a long time and much trial and error to gain control of the materials." Reviewing an exhibit of her chemography, the "Johnson City Press" wrote: "Many of the images are positive, starkly white against a negative background. The effect is of a watercolor wash in neutral tones which can be deeply spiritual, as it is in much of her work, or bursting with energy and vitality." At age 78, Richmond confesses that age has slowed her down-including hip replacement surgery in 1994- but it has not kept her from pursuing new challenges. She is continuing her higher education at Clinch Valley College. She's visited eight other countries, and she started her own business when very few women had careers outside their homes. She created her own art medium. She's one of a kind, a true original, and she has lived a life that has been as interesting as she is." |
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From AUGUST 1996 A! Magazine: Seeking a new creative form of expression, Peyton Richmond of St. Paul, Virginia, combined the art of painting with the art of photography in a unique way, creating in the process a new medium which she calls "chemography," or chemical painting. "The process is that of a painter; the materials those of the photographer. I make no use of the camera. There is no negative," she says. "In the darkroom, I brush developers onto sensitized photographic papers. My colors come from transparent oils, chemical toners or a combination of the two. "Each chemograph is an original creation, an end in itself. The result is a very personal statement since it proceeds from the mind and the imagination in the isolation of the darkroom."
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