Ricky Watts

Richard “Ricky” Watts

Born 1980 in San Francisco, California.

Richard Watts' creative obsessions began at an early age. As a child, he loved cartoons and comic books, often doodling his own. In grade school, he drew his peers' names in exchange for bartered items. By high school, his entrepreneurial creations were funding his daily lunches. High school was also when Watts discovered the underground world of aerosol art. Fascinated with spray paint as a medium, he became fully engaged in creating elaborate pieces under the cover of night. After high school, he traveled up and down the west coast, painting large-scale pieces on any surface he could find.

In 2000, Watts enrolled at The Advertising Arts College in San Diego to study graphic design. He went on to spend 10 years in the print industry while working on his fine art on nights and weekends. In 2004, his debut solo exhibition "Spontaneous Combustion" opened in his hometown of Petaluma, California. 

Over the years, Richard experimented with multiple styles, ranging from H.R. Giger influenced bio-mechanical paintings to highly detailed illustrations before developing his current abstract style of "hard-edge gradients". This came about in 2012 as a deconstruction of the typography forms he was painting on walls. It was a lightbulb moment and Watts put every other pursuit on hold to follow the path of this new-formed style.

Today, Richard's colorful large-scale murals and intricate works on canvas can be found throughout the United States. His extensive client list includes major works for Google, Louis Vuitton, LinkedIn, Skechers and Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco. 

Richard Watts currently works out of his Northern California studio and spends his “free time” parenting energetic six-year-old twins.