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EDUCATION
Completed full time Secondary Education 1948.
( Outstanding subjects - Drawing and Painting).
1957 to 1960 Studied for Engineering qualifications.
1964 to 1974 Studied Life Painting and Drawing, History of Art and
experimental painting under William Mills at East Herts College.
CAREER DETAILS
1948 -1953 Completed Engineering Apprenticeship, although
main interest was Drawing and Painting.
1953 -1955 National Service with Royal Air Force.
1955 -1974 Returned to civilian life working as an Engineering
Draughtsman with several large companies, while maintaining my
involvement with painting and exhibiting regularly in the
Hertfordshire area.
1974 -1996 Moved to Swanage, Dorset, to devote more time to
painting and establish a studio, while still supporting myself and
family as an Engineering Draughtsman.
1996 - Now devoted to full time painting.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
2005 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol - shared exhibition
(4 artists)
2006 Allsop Gallery, Bridport Art centre - “Exhibition Signature” -
shared exhibition (4 artists)
2007 Lighthouse Gallery, Poole - “The Power of Paint” - Solo
exhibition
2008 Atkinson Gallery, Milfield, Street, Somerset Summer
Exhibition (Commendation award)
2010
Purbeck Art Week - Open Studio
2010
Acanthus Gallery, Wareham - shared exhibition (4 artists)
STATEMENT
Acknowledging that painting and art in general is personal and
invokes a different response in us all, my concerns are with
achieving meaningful work that exists in its own right, without
recourse to illustration or pictorial elements.
With this in mind, what I struggle to produce I regard as non-
figurative as opposed to abstract. Abstraction infers that it is
abstracted from something else, i.e. elements taken from
landscape etc. and re-arranged in a different composition.
As with all painting it is a process of analysis and constant
alteration to arrive at a meaningful result. But all these judgements
are aesthetic and without pictorial restraints. Colour, paint handling,
gestural mark making and experimentation are all important to
impart the illusion of energy, vigour and surface tension to the flat
surface. Therefore experiment is crucial and I try to avoid reliance
on a rigid technique.
Because the window for innovation is very small, the struggle to
find it is more intense and not always successful. Not having
pictorial or illustrational qualities to fall back on, the painting can
only work on a painterly level.