Richard Croft was born in 1935 in London. He studied at Bromley College of Art 1951-55 and Brighton College of Art 1957-58. He came to Belfast in 1959 to Dunlambert School, Fortwilliam and then succeeded Wilfred Stewart as Head of Art at Annadale Grammar School. In 1966 he won a commended prize in the Gallagher Portrait Competition.

A Royal Ulster Academician since 1969 and President 1997-2000, he makes images in oils, pastels, watercolour and print, sourced from the local area or from still life, which are all stamped with his personal vision of composition, colour and textures with a strong reliance on drawing.

His work is represented in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, the Government of Northern Ireland Collection, the Northern Bank, London University, Oxford University and the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Now retired from teaching, Croft has a studio in Dundrum, County Down. Describing his method of painting as ‘funambulism or tightrope walking’, Croft switches between abstraction and realism.