RICHARD BECKER

An American Painter and Historical Artist

By Lisa Ingham, Editor
(Also see Press Release and related links below)

"Yo Ho, a pirates life for me, or so it seems. I started using pirates as a major theme for my art and writing in 1989, and it seems like it’s pretty much taken over my life since then.

Images of the past have continued to fascinate me. I have always lived by the coast, and spent much of my time by the sea. I suppose it’s natural that period ships, sailors, sea battles, and pirates would be a theme for my artwork."

Richard Becker, an American Painter and Historical Artist, was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1951. He came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1954. He studied at the San Francisco Academy of Arts in the mid-seventy’s and has become one of San Francisco Bay Area’s renowned painters.

His early influences of Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and the English Edwardian Illustrators along with years of methodical research resulted in a number of compositions describing the swashbuckling life of the buccaneers.

In 1992, Becker started "Black Swan Press" where he wrote, published and illustrated his first in a successful series of 8 issues of "Blood Thirsty Pirate Tales" covering the history, period costumes, weaponry and historical tales of pirates throughout the world.

In 1993, Richard Becker was writer and illustrator of "Draw the Marvel Comics Super Heroes" for Klutz Press. The revised edition has been released with all new artwork, by Richard, in 2007.

In the mid-ninety’s, Becker was commissioned to do works for the History channel and A&E’s television series: "Sea Tales". Including the episode titled: "Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror".

One of Richard Becker’s paintings titled "My Treasure" can be seen on the DVD release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in the section "An Epic at Sea" under costumes and makeup. Richard has done pirate portraits for the actors "Johnny Depp", "Lee Arenberg", and "Martin (Marty) Kalebba".

Annually, Becker has been an exhibitor at the "Gold Coast Pirate Festival" in Ojai, California where patrons come to see his works and commission his wonderful pirate art. He has also been requested to participate in a growing number of Festivals and Events.

Be sure to get your copy of Richard’s "Pirate Art Book - Seventeen Years of Drawing Sea Rovers".

Hot off the press!! is Richard’s new graphic novel "Blackbeard the Pirate".

Over 30 of Richard Becker’s wonderful pirate illustrations are featured in a special edition of"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in the section titled: "Scoundrels of the Sea" on "Blu-ray" DVD 2007.

You can also see his illustrations in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End"; "Beowulf" on "Blu-ray" DVD, and the "Princess Bride" 2006 special feature titled: "The Dread Pirate Roberts".