The painting that I have is of some birds standing in the water, reflections of their shadows, grasses along the shore, and some sky on the horizon… Everything is varying hues of brown, with very little white and grey, and almost the only black is the shadows of the birds and some scallops on their feathers. The “Richards” is signed in printed letters, capital and small, on the far left about one foot, or so from the bottom, of the large canvas, (About 4 feet x 4 feet). The signature is angled slightly upward and the “R” portion which angles down and to the right crosses over to the left side of the letter.
I live in San Francisco and I purchased it at a garage sale, so I would not be surprised if it were a California artist, but talking to a few Art Dealers, there doesn’t seem to be anyone who knows anything. I have no illusions that this is a very valuable painting, but I wonder about who the artist is and so forth.