George Taylor

Artist Statement

The mechanism whereby we convert external stimuli through our senses, to in effect, 'create' our individual personal consciousness, is innately mysterious per se and it seems to me that when we involve the further mystery of human emotion in this equation, together with a degree of applied creative intelligence, we have the basic ingredients for making unique art forms that have the potential to connect with the mysterious, rather than striving to make merely an illusory reproduction of an image as perceived. Thus, as life is manifestly, innately mysterious and enigmatic, it seems to me also, that the truest and most valid route to artistic expression is not exclusively via the two organs of sight, essential as they are to the act of making, but through the 'eye of the mind'; a method of expression based on recollection, memory, experience, 'feelings' and of course, the sub-conscious, in effect, an internal processing of external experience. An art of a different integrity, of the non-objective and non-representational that stands entirely 'on its own', free of the prop of the visually perceived world, 'out there'. The product of this experiential approach becomes an autonomous entity, having a concrete existence in the natural world, but not defined by it or dependent upon an illusive construct of it, but perhaps, having oblique and allusive references to it, sometimes implied via the title. Although all my work is essentially mixed media, in my paintings and collages, I attempt to organise aggregated glimpses of experience on a two dimensional plane, the juxtaposition of vaguely referential, symbolic, abstracted and nebulous marks, free from the limitations of a physical context, being pivotal; creating an ambiguous, but hopefully, visually coherent image that resists definition or interpretation. In my constructions and assemblages, I strive to achieve a similar outcome via a juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous, three dimensional elements. Concise career path: Studied painting 1959 to 1963. 1966 awarded Margaret Gardiner Prize for painting on recommendation of Sir Terry Frost RA. Worked in education 1963-1990. Since 1990, one person exhibitions sponsored by Humberside County Council (Two venues). Oxford City Council. Oxfordshire County Council (Banbury and Woodstock). Nuneaton and Bedworth District Council. Cotswold District Council and Green College, Oxford. Frequent regional and grand finalist in Laing Art Competition, both regionally and nationally. Elected Full Member, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. Selected Exhibitions: Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford. Playhouse Theatre, Oxford. Banbury School of Art, Oxfordshire. Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. Mall Galleries, London. Bond Gallery, Birmingham. Bristol Cathedral. Chichester Open Exhibition. *Bridlington Library, Humberside, *Flamborough Library, Humberside. *Town Hall Gallery, Oxford. *Green College, Oxford. *Spiceball Arts Centre, Banbury, Oxfordshire. Banbury Museum, Oxfordshire. *Cotswold Area Centre, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire. *Little Gallery, Oxford. Said Business School, Oxford. *Oxfordshire County Museum, Woodstock. *Where I Fell In Love Gallery, Shipston on Stour and Leamington, Warwickshire. Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford, Oxfordshire. *Riversley Park Art Gallery, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Creative Art Gallery, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Espace Champerret, Paris, Corn Exchange and New Greenham Arts, Newbury, Berkshire. Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight. Keele University, Staffordshire. West Ox Arts, Bampton, Oxfordshire. *The Theatre Gallery, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. University Hospital, Coventry, Warwickshire. *Gallery 150, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Winters, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire. 'A' Gallery, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire. Leamington School of Art, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. King's Sutton Church, Northamptonshire. *Denotes one person exhibitions.