Richard Croft 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 Grammer school. In 1966 he won a commended prize in the Gallagher Portrait Competition.

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.