I am a visual artist whose output involves painting, mixed media and collage. My figurative style is fragmentary and references both the art of the past and contemporary culture. I usually work in series with each work involving an interplay between one or more figures and ambiguous forms in order to invoke a particular mood, e.g. contemplative, melancholy, or dramatic. The figures operate in a shallow, theatrical space and tend to possess the frontality and expressive shorthand common to votive art of all cultures. These elements combine to suggest an absurd universe where meaning is fluid and open to interpretation.
I am a visual artist whose output involves painting, mixed media and collage. My figurative style is fragmentary and references both the art of the past and contemporary culture. I usually work in series with each work involving an interplay between one or more figures and ambiguous forms in order to invoke a particular mood, e.g. contemplative, melancholy, or dramatic. The figures operate in a shallow, theatrical space and tend to possess the frontality and expressive shorthand common to votive art of all cultures. These elements combine to suggest an absurd universe where meaning is fluid and open to interpretation.
Often I will start a series of works with an idea inspired by something recently seen or read. Other times I may work more instinctively from images found in books, postcards, the cinema or online. I may also start a new work by tracing an old drawing, or the overpainting and collaging of earlier works, especially proof prints and print matrices. The composition is then subjected to a number of revisions and embellishments. The paint layers involve open brushwork, impasto and glazes, and are often further modified by the introduction of sand, sawdust or collage elements. Colour decisions are driven by the emotional tone and to balance the composition.
I am very interested in how the mind assigns value to imagination and experience and how these meet to produce a work or art. My tendency to simplify, filter and truncate is in response to the fragmented and bewildering surfeit of images available to contemporary audiences. Artists of different periods and cultures have used the human figure in order to convey a narrative or personify a concept. By referencing the formal potency of these otherwise outmoded and compromised systems I wish to draw attention to a common ground, or sometimes a point of departure, in order to highlight the absurdities that continue to divide us. The power dynamics of childhood, family and rites of passage feature strongly as I consider they have a universal significance that transcends religion, myth or dogma.
Originally from Coventry I studied Fine Art in Sunderland before moving to Reading in 1984 for my MFA. After years of making art around a day-job I became a full-time artist in 2015. I hold a studio in the town at OpenHand OpenSpace and participate regularly in exhibitions nationally and internationally.
BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
1960 Born Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Since 1984 lives and works in Reading, Berkshire
1984-86 University of Reading, MFA (Painting)
1983-84 Studio with Sunderland Artists Group
1980-83 Sunderland Polytechnic, BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class)
1979-80 Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Companion Pieces, no format Gallery, Deptford (October)
2018 Soldier, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere
2017 To & Fro ??, Peacock Gallery, Reading
2016 The peace which passes..., OHOS, Reading
2013 The Heart’s Long Coast, More Arts, Wokingham
2011 Recent paintings, Meller Merceux Gallery, Oxford
2011 From here on in, Corn Exchange, Newbury
1988 Artist of the Day, Angela Flowers Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
Imago, OHOS, Reading
Diptych, Triptych, Polyptych, PS Mirabel, Manchester
Open Exhibition, NN Contemporary, Northampton
2017
Winter Salon: Power Play, The Concept Space, London
Rye Winter Salon, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, Sussex
SFSA Painting Open, No Format Gallery, London
Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
As it stands, 100 Years Gallery, London
Small World, PS Mirabel, Manchester
New Prints / Summer, IPC, New York
Chaos, Contrasts, Change, OHOS, Reading
2016
4th Intl Juried Print, New Grounds Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Shifting States, Espacio Gallery, London
Innervisions, International Print Center, New York
RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester
2015
MONO II, Espacio Gallery, London
Desire Lines, OHOS, Reading
Print as Verb, OHOS, Reading
Colour & Materials, Espacio Gallery, London
TwitterArtExhibit, Moss, Norway
2014
Heaven + Hell, Espacio Gallery, London
Hanging Tough, OHOS, Reading
A Book about Death, Royal Cambrian Society, Wales
Constellation, Reading Museum and Art Gallery
Original Print Fair, Espacio Gallery, London
2013
Strata, Espacio Gallery, London
Emergence, Espacio Gallery, London
2012
Original Print Fair, Espacio Gallery, London
Face to Face, Espacio Gallery, London
Viewpoints, Espacio Gallery, London
Echo, OHOS, Reading
2011
Would you like and why not? OHOS, Reading
Take off, New Greenham Arts Centre, Newbury
Send Me A Postcard Darling, The Red Gate Gallery, London
NUIT BLANCHE: Parcel Fever, OHOS, Reading
2009
KAMIEN (Stone) e-mail Art Project, MOKSiR Chelmek, Poland
1994-2000
Numerous shows at the Jelly Leg'd Chicken Gallery, Reading
1988
Berkshire Artists Group Show, Windsor Arts Centre
1987
Four Painters, Darlington Arts Centre
Take Six, Chisenhale Studios, London
1986
Three Painters, Cleveland Gallery, Middlesborough
1983
Sunderland Artists Group Show, Washington Arts Centre
Northern Artists, Gallery Seven, Newcastle
Tyne Tees Northern Open, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and tour
Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Manchester
1982
Engelsk Grafikk, Gallery F15, Norway
AWARDS
2017 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust
1983 Purchase prize, Tyne Tees Northern Open
1982 First prize in Magnolia Mouldings National Landscape Competition
CURATION AND PROJECTS
2016 WordUp! Multi-site collaboration with Peter Driver for Reading's Year of Culture
2013 Curation and installation of Searching, Always @Gallery49, Bracknell
COLLECTIONS
Sunderland University
Magnolia Mouldings
Reading University
Angela Flowers Gallery
Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts
And private collections in UK, Europe and China
PUBLICATIONS, TALKS & MEDIA
2018: SOLDIER: art & poetry with readings by Adrian Blamires, Sandham Memorial Chapel
2018: Editorial Team selection for ArtMaze Mag, issue 6, January
2017: Featured image in Discerning Eye catalogue
2016: Forms of Exchange, talk on the journey from source to motif, New Greenham Arts
2015: Eliza's Entertainments, images to accompany poetry by Adrian Blamires
2015: Cover to Cover, a sketchbook project, ISBN 978-0-9932232-1-1
2014: Interview on the Palette Pages
2014: Transformations, a contemporary working of Ovid's Metamorphoses, ISBN 978-1-292-68852-8
2014: Heaven + Hell, exhibition catalogue with an introductory essay by Anna McNay
2012: FAD News Q&A
2010: FROM HERE ON IN exhibition catalogue, with an introductory essay by Adrian Blamires
1988: Artist of the Day, exhibition catalogue, Angela Flowers Gallery
