Keswick
In the summer of 1985, we had a holiday at Keswick and for some reason, I took my pencils and paints with me. During the holiday I sketched and painted non-stop and continued to do so after we returned home to Wrexham. Later that summer we joined my cousin Keith and his family in the Conwy Valley, where I continued sketching and painting. I was inspired at this time by a biography of Van Gogh by Ian Dunlop and a book on oil painting by Solomon J. Solomon, who painted the large “Samson” in the foyer of the Walker Art Gallery.
I did a Gauguin, but not to the South Seas; I decided to give up teaching science at the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education. I taught for just one more year and in 1986 I began painting full time. My wife Joyce helped to support me and without her help, I would not have been able to paint.
Starting Out
My new paintings focused on the human figure, influenced by the figure compositions of Stanley Spencer. Many of them were inspired by memories of childhood in Ballyhay, a very rural place in Northern Ireland, while others were based on modern life, such as supermarkets. Some of the earlier works are quite ambitious compositions, planned with care and squared up from preparatory drawings, following the practice of Stanley Spencer.
I discovered Stanley Spencer while I was still at school. I have a biography of Spencer by his brother Gilbert which is interesting on details of their shared childhood. I particularly like the line drawings by Gilbert Spencer in this book.
Our friend Linda Moller arranged meetings with the artists Nicholas and Cherry Munro, who gave me valuable advice. My father was really helpful. He started painting again himself to show solidarity and always came into my studio to see the latest work when my parents visited us. He felt that the figures in my paintings had a surreal quality. My cousin Keith and his wife Liz were also very encouraging. They suggested an exhibition at the Brew House Theater, Taunton and this inspired me to produce work for it.
John Horwill
My father knew the artist and former college lecturer John Horwill who had a studio in Llanrwst. Horwill opened my eyes to the importance of abstract Form in art, such as colour, line and shape. You could paint the human figure but it was the form that mattered and the subject was just something “to hang it on”. I took Horwill’s insistence on form to heart while retaining my interest in subject matter, including the human figure and scenes from everyday life.
John Horwill showed me how I could paint on Cotton Duck and Hardboard, primed with household emulsion paint or acrylic emulsion. Some of the paintings are large in scale.
Life Class
Now that I was concentrating on the human figure I consulted books on anatomy and attended life classes at the Library Arts Centre at Wrexham. The instructors at the life class included a lecturer from the Wrexham College of Art who we knew as Anton and the artist Sara Jane Harper. My fellow students included Tim Jones who was interested in Picasso’s classical period and Elfyn Jones who I have often exhibited with.
Dualism and First Fast Mode
The Brew House exhibition did not materialize, leaving me free to paint in any way I wanted. After reading “Concepts of Modern Art” I started questioning traditional forms of perspective and developed a theory which I called “Dualism”, according to which everything in a picture has to be both subject and abstract form in equal degree. “Domestic Scene” is the best example. Alongside Dualism, I painted some much freer works using the new acrylic paint. I call these “First Fast Mode”.
Enterprise Allowance
In 1987 I received some financial assistance from the “Enterprise Allowance Scheme”. To comply with its spirit, I attempted to produce some work which was likely to be popular, as well as interesting to myself. The painting “Cows 1” is the best example. My cousin Wendy Russell bought one of my paintings.
Second Fast Mode and Gift
In November 1987, my father was suddenly taken ill and was in hospital for a while. When the term of the Enterprise Allowance came to an end, I embarked on a “Second Fast Mode”, consisting of paintings in acrylic paint on paper, but the character of the work was different this time, and I think this had something to do with my father’s illness.
The Second Fast Mode led to some works which anticipated the period which I call “Gift”. In 1986, I saw the large painting “The Plains of Heaven” by John Martin in the Tate at Millbank. It made a deep impression on me because it seemed to depict a reality beyond the reality of everyday existence. In 1988 I painted a picture called “Gift”. It was followed by others such as “Swimmers” and “Party”, painted in a similar style. Some members of the family thought they looked “empty”, while other people seemed to like them. I call this period “Gift” after the work which started it.
The First Mostyn Open
In 1989 a friend persuaded me to enter two paintings, “Welcome” and “Waiting”, for the first open exhibition held by the Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno. The director of the gallery, Susan Beardmore, was encouraging and likened my work to that of Christopher Wood.
Art for the People
I eventually reacted against the Gift style, replacing it with another kind of “Fast Mode”, which I rather patronizingly called “Art for the People”. In this period I tried to use inexpensive materials. Windsor and Newton advised me that their Student Earth colours were permanent and a firm in Hawarden gave me a stack of acid-free paper. I made some quick pastels on some of this paper.