Painter Richard Stodart was born in Trinidad, the West Indies, in 1945. He moved to Toronto, Canada in 1968 to attend the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute (now Ryerson University) where he majored in Radio and Television Arts. After gaining Canadian citizenship he began to establish a painting career, and was awarded a Canada Council Grant for his work in 1975.

The following year, Stodart moved to Northern California and married Virginian Nancy Lloyd Jones. He continued to study and work in oils and acrylics, and began to focus on spiritual themes in an Abstract style. This led to commissions for book and magazine covers, album covers, and interior design collaborations. 

Stodart and his wife moved to Jones' native Virgini,a where he set up his studio on their farm on the Wicomico River. He continues to work there, and is represented by the Gallery in the Woods in Vermont, and the Open Secret Gallery in California.