CATALOGUE 2026-27
Inside is a distillation of 40 years work in 14 pages, & an index. It's designed to introduce collectors & art lovers to the many themes of my work. I would be delighted to explain more to you about one should you be interested.
I trust Dale Hutchison who is highly skilled in all aspects of art management to also assist, advise with any questions you may have. I entrust the business side to Dale while I spend time in Italy creating more art.
Above - An image which has haunted me all my life. 'Dog of Comfort & Protection' was first created in 1983. Dogs are the most loyal & protective of all animals to humans.
I hope that a Big Story, old or new appears for artists, that a Phoenix rises from the ashes. Dragging up endless versions of ego perceptions is becoming boring.
I'm working on new versions of Christian religious imagery to counter the present destruction, & there is more interest in this than I'd have thought - I hope others to do too. If they do, people will buy them & art galleries will exhibit them.
I'm also working on a written project about the reality of being an artist without going to Art School - there's no reason why you shouldn't succeed. Most of the best artists existed before Art Schools did.
'Only in the West does Art constantly change.'
Art from as far back as the 10th century influences my work.
I love beauty, narrative & skill.
All cultures create art - on walls, bodies, fabrics, ceramics, buildings using all kinds of materials, change happens only slowly. Only in the west does it change so often its hard to keep up with. Going from representational to abstract art & everything in between in just 100 years.
I'm not religious but I find Christian religious art increasingly attractive & I know others do too. I also encourage others to make their own versions of what appeals to them & I think if enough artists did so, galleries would give them a show.
Computers, mobiles, websites, AI, social media affect us all. Is there a price for the convenience & what will the long term effects be? What is the role of an artist today? Do we need censorship? Is modern art ugly? What is beauty? What has happened to the Soul?
Photograph by James Koch
City of Bristol, my UK home & it's famous Suspension Bridge.
This oil painting was made circa 1994. I never tire of this view where at night, the bridge appears to be hanging in the sky.
Bristol City is has beautiful architecture and tree filled public parks & gardens where people can sit, picknick, play & just relax.
Detail from the painting of Bristol Suspension Bridge. The light & atmosphere constantly changes.. Oil on canvas.1994. 70 x 66 cm.
There are three main sides to my work - nature & the landscapes I see, the imagination, then the one which interprets what I observe of the world created by humans.
What is the imagination, what is it's purpose?
Imagination - Instead of drawing what I see, I often as it were, 'draw' my thoughts, & find pen & ink best for this. It's fast making the results immediate. The images come from memory, intuition & having looked at many other pictures. Imagination is hard to define exactly but could it be a result of he interaction between the conscious & unconscious mind? or maybe just a product of the unconscnious?
Science aims to prove things as unquestionable, but I think imagination is rather like being certain about the origins of the universe which can never be proved permanently because the goal posts change the moment you think it's been nailed!
A dream - of frescoes painted in Italy combining modern & past human life with nature & the life of animals.
DRAWING with a dip pen and ink is so expressive. It can be disobedient, blot & stall, but it's fun & rewarding when it works. It's also portable, inexpensive & only a few techniques are needed to begin.
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My response to the present chaos & confusion is in my own work to create contemporary versions of traditional Christian imagery, in the hope of encouraging others, & so revive an interest in Christianity being the original religion of this country.
These four drawings reflect different visions of how my imagination works on the same subject.
A labyrinth of repeating interpretations.
A slide-bar with humans, strange beings, churches, opposing forces - dark-light, chaos-order, people, imagined forms.
First - a planet a fantastical hybrid faces birds - contrasted with a calm tonal oil painting of trees.
Two illustrated books on Amazon -
'The Year 2020, World in Chaos'
& 'Eclipse 2023'
Between 2020 & 2023 I drew 140 pictures in two large sketchbooks about the Global Pandemic.
I used classical & modern images & each has a brief commentary.
Amazon Print £6.64. Kindle £1.65,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/YEAR-2020-WORLD-Seventy-Drawings-ebook/dp/B0BR5R4MQQ/ref=sr_1_2?
My son took this photo of me in Italy. I'm surrounded by pictures I made there since 2016. It's my favourite country, I love the Italian people, history, art & the landscape. Although he cannot be here, Norman made it possible for me to be there.
Norman Rickard. When He died in 2007 I made paintings about & in memory of him. I call this one 'Norman with Wings.'
NORMaN LOVED BIRDS, candle-lit dinner parties,
music & CHRISTMAS.
Norman Rickard, love of my life. We were the same age, born on the same day, at the same time, April 4 1952. He died on May 7th 2007.
The Consequences of war
Images of War 2003-15. 50 paintings & over 100 drawings
50.000 children were killed in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. I painted distressed, wounded, orphaned and dead babies and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Gaza. Not a single war has been stopped by war art. I see it as caused not by those in the front line but by those far away from it, who plan, design, implement, manipulate & profit from it,
It's known that diplomacy could prevent many wars, but sadly governments are rarely interested in that.
