Gallery : An explanation of my working ethos.
My paintings may appear to be the work of a number of different artists, a result of wilfully subjecting myself to different styles and influences for very specific reasons throughout my painting life.
I completed an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship with the De-Havilland Aircraft Company and continued working for them as a technical illustrator before deciding to satisfy my urge to spend more time painting. After studying art at the Regent St. Polytechnic School of Art in London from 54 - 58 and teaching the subject at various institutions, I eventually spent 25 years teaching at Exeter College of Art.
Tutoring at that level required the attempt to empathise with each student's way of experiencing the world and enabling them to find a visual form to interpret it. The result was that the longer I taught, the more I witnessed the variety of solutions which could be produced from the same starting point. It was an experience which caused me to rethink my previous assumptions about developing a personal and consistent language in my own work. I began to accept that certain subjects required solutions that cut across my habitual way of working. To draw out the characteristics which caught my attention I had to try to find new pictorial structures each time, either invented or adapted from other artist's inventions. It also meant being prepared to explore the entire range of visual languages from the overtly figurative to the entirely abstract. Any means to achieve the right solution.
I never know when these heightened responses to certain subjects will occur and until they do I am happy to indulge my enjoyment of paint and colour in a more traditional manner, whilst hoping each time that it will take me into unanticipated territory again.
My paintings may appear to be the work of a number of different artists, a result of wilfully subjecting myself to different styles and influences for very specific reasons throughout my painting life.
I completed an aeronautical engineering apprenticeship with the De-Havilland Aircraft Company and continued working for them as a technical illustrator before deciding to satisfy my urge to spend more time painting. After studying art at the Regent St. Polytechnic School of Art in London from 54 - 58 and teaching the subject at various institutions, I eventually spent 25 years teaching at Exeter College of Art.
Tutoring at that level required the attempt to empathise with each student's way of experiencing the world and enabling them to find a visual form to interpret it. The result was that the longer I taught, the more I witnessed the variety of solutions which could be produced from the same starting point. It was an experience which caused me to rethink my previous assumptions about developing a personal and consistent language in my own work. I began to accept that certain subjects required solutions that cut across my habitual way of working. To draw out the characteristics which caught my attention I had to try to find new pictorial structures each time, either invented or adapted from other artist's inventions. It also meant being prepared to explore the entire range of visual languages from the overtly figurative to the entirely abstract. Any means to achieve the right solution.
I never know when these heightened responses to certain subjects will occur and until they do I am happy to indulge my enjoyment of paint and colour in a more traditional manner, whilst hoping each time that it will take me into unanticipated territory again.
