Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
London-based artist Richard Ayodeji Ikhide makes large-scale watercolour paintings and drawings that are influenced by everything from comic culture and Nigerian Edo history to the intangible qualities of human experience. In this Artist Insights film, Richard shares his technique and journey as an artist.
0:00 "I’m trying to dispel these hierarchies within painting."
0:10 "The marks I'm making are quite intuitive."
1:12 Introduction
1:30 "Having lived half of my life back home in Lagos, and then living half of my life in England, you get this amalgamation of different experiences."
3:14 "My approach to painting with watercolours is unconventional."
4:04 "There’s a long history of sequences and sequential narrative, which has evolved into forms like film, animation, and video games."
5:26 "For me, drawing is largely about problem solving."
6:56 "There’s something amazing about a squirrel brush on hot press paper – the way it moves and glides across the surface is like a chef’s kiss. It’s just incredible."
8:50 "There is no mysticism behind the way the piece takes shape."
9:09 "That pure joy of making a line, or painting, or using colour, you get lost in the flow of the process."
10:40 "You’re on your own odyssey, your own journey, and what that means for you is personal."
12:18 "I feel like my practice is a form of visual archaeology."
13:10 "Studying textiles at Central Saint Martins was an experience very different from what I'm doing now."
14:24 "Colour doesn't just become a filler."
15:43 "The sketchbook is like a visual library, a visual grimoire."
18:00 “I think there’s something liberating about letting go and just saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll start again – it’s not the end of the world.’”
20:08 "With watercolours, it's like you get to a point where the paper can't take any more."
20:59 "It's like it's an intermingling of home life and trying to find some semblance of work."
23:23 "I can make watercolours a serious medium."
24:51 "You teach a class of people, everybody sees things differently."
26:29 "I see art as kind of like a chart of the human psyche through history."
28:06 Credits
Shop art materials on our website: jacksonsart.com/colour/watercolour/watercolour-paint?utm_campaign=artist_insights_richard_ayodeji_ikhide&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_content=youtube_social_organic_video_to_ecom
Read our blog: jacksonsart.com/blog/2025/08/05/artist-insights-richard-ayodeji-ikhide/?utm_campaign=artist_insights_richard_ayodeji_ikhide&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_content=youtube_social_organic_video_to_blog
#artmaterials #watercolor #watercolour #art
Music courtesy of YouTube Audio Library. The music was inspired by the songs Richard and the Jackson's Team listened to while painting during the shoot.
London-based artist Richard Ayodeji Ikhide makes large-scale watercolour paintings and drawings that are influenced by everything from comic culture and Nigerian Edo history to the intangible qualities of human experience. In this Artist Insights film, Richard shares his technique and journey as an artist.
0:00 "I’m trying to dispel these hierarchies within painting."
0:10 "The marks I'm making are quite intuitive."
1:12 Introduction
1:30 "Having lived half of my life back home in Lagos, and then living half of my life in England, you get this amalgamation of different experiences."
3:14 "My approach to painting with watercolours is unconventional."
4:04 "There’s a long history of sequences and sequential narrative, which has evolved into forms like film, animation, and video games."
5:26 "For me, drawing is largely about problem solving."
6:56 "There’s something amazing about a squirrel brush on hot press paper – the way it moves and glides across the surface is like a chef’s kiss. It’s just incredible."
8:50 "There is no mysticism behind the way the piece takes shape."
9:09 "That pure joy of making a line, or painting, or using colour, you get lost in the flow of the process."
10:40 "You’re on your own odyssey, your own journey, and what that means for you is personal."
12:18 "I feel like my practice is a form of visual archaeology."
13:10 "Studying textiles at Central Saint Martins was an experience very different from what I'm doing now."
14:24 "Colour doesn't just become a filler."
15:43 "The sketchbook is like a visual library, a visual grimoire."
18:00 “I think there’s something liberating about letting go and just saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll start again – it’s not the end of the world.’”
20:08 "With watercolours, it's like you get to a point where the paper can't take any more."
20:59 "It's like it's an intermingling of home life and trying to find some semblance of work."
23:23 "I can make watercolours a serious medium."
24:51 "You teach a class of people, everybody sees things differently."
26:29 "I see art as kind of like a chart of the human psyche through history."
28:06 Credits
Shop art materials on our website: jacksonsart.com/colour/watercolour/watercolour-paint?utm_campaign=artist_insights_richard_ayodeji_ikhide&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_content=youtube_social_organic_video_to_ecom
Read our blog: jacksonsart.com/blog/2025/08/05/artist-insights-richard-ayodeji-ikhide/?utm_campaign=artist_insights_richard_ayodeji_ikhide&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_content=youtube_social_organic_video_to_blog
#artmaterials #watercolor #watercolour #art
Music courtesy of YouTube Audio Library. The music was inspired by the songs Richard and the Jackson's Team listened to while painting during the shoot.
