Kindhearted and soft-spoken, Eluster Richardson’s humble nature belies his phenomenal talent. Born and raised in Tallahassee, he absorbed the north Florida landscapes which are flawlessly rendered in his paintings.
Eluster, the ninth child and first son born to Eluster, Sr. and Amanda Richardson, discovered he had artistic ability in the third grade. His hobby of painting the world around him would later become a full-time second career.
He was drafted during the Vietnam War but served in Korea at communications headquarters. When he returned, he took a job at the phone company as a network engineer. There he met a pretty woman named Lessie from Quincy, FL. They’ve been married for 47 years. His job utilized his math skills, about which, Eluster says, “in life and in art, a lot of problems can be solved with math.”
Lessie and Eluster’s daughter, Jasmine, was born in 1991. She quickly became her father’s muse, featured in multiple paintings which caught the attention of festival attendees at Springtime Tallahassee and Chain of Parks. Jasmine is immortalized in paintings both privately owned and in public displays.
In 1996, Eluster began a partnership with Althemese Barnes, founding Director of the John G. Riley House Museum. “Eluster created the first history exhibit for me,” explains Althemese. “He selected 35 photos of African American sites, people, and occasions and painted and framed them.” This partnership would launch his hobby to career status when a work of his on display was chosen for an exhibition on midwifery at the Smithsonian.
When he retired in 2004, his mother, a master quilter, moved in with them. She and her intricately crafted quilts would become immortalized in several paintings and a beautiful sculpture he created in her honor. His mother, bent over a quilt, glasses perched on her nose as she draws a needle and thread toward her, is an exquisite piece of art. Eluster painted the patchwork quilt that’s splayed out around her.
Eluster teaches Advanced Oil painting classes at the Tallahassee Senior Center. His student, artist Joel Thornton, says “Eluster has influenced my appreciation for portraiture in oil as a meaningful and rigorous practice. And who doesn’t love the egrets Eluster drops into his landscapes?”
Eluster inconspicuously paints an angel onto each of paintings, perhaps hidden in a stormy cloud or tucked into a child’s braid. Perhaps this is his way to honor God and the artistic talent that God blessed him with. Eluster says being an artist was a hobby he “worked to come home to but now my passion works for me.”
