SOCIALLY-DISTANCED PRIVATE VIEWING
All available work is listed in my latest catalogue: More Escapism. The works range from stylised landscapes in the opening pages to abstracts and richly coloured still life pictures (mainly Italian food) towards the back. All of it aims to remind us of happier days, past and to come - 'escapism' in the most positive sense. In fact 'more escapism' as the gig was much the same a year ago.
Throughout the whole of April and May, up to three pieces can be be seen on request at an individual socially-distanced doorstep viewing at my studio, just off the A34 near Botley. I did this last year and it worked well.To arrange, ring Neil Butterfield on 07800 658859.
COVID-SAFE LIVE EXHIBITION
A selection of pictures will be exhibited 'live' at our 4@No.27 well-ventilated semi-outdoor Wolvercote venue from 8th May. As always, I will be exhibiting with my lovely friends in Wolvercote (see poster) - paintings, stained glass, jewellery and sculpture - a killer combination, we think! The paintings (a smaller number than usual because of space constraints) will be shown in a room with bifold doors, wide open across a complete side, facing the garden and overlooking Port Meadow.The exhibition will be stewarded, with a limit on the number of visitors in the venue at one time - most probably safer than visiting the local supermarket! Visitors are requested to wear face covering
10% discount for previous customers throughout April and May.
If you had asked the 15-year-old me what I wanted to be, I would have said “a painter”. This was not because of any prodigious talent, but because I was a bit of an art geek, spending hours on my own, wandering round the National Gallery. Now, after a career in teaching and then in publishing (20 wonderful years at Oxford University Press), I am realising that teenage ambition.
My work is usually figurative but driven by an obsession with colour and an exploration of the tension between a flat painted surface and the illusion of three dimensional space. Hence the flattened perspective in my still life pictures or what I call my vertical landscapes. As a process, it’s all about balance: not too many ingredients and knowing just when to stop, rather like cooking, another favourite activity. The Oxford Times has described my work as ”glowing and exuberant” and that is something I try to live up to!
My art heroes include Paul Gauguin (an awful human being), Piero della Francesca, Barbara Rae and above all, Paul Klee. For Klee it was a visit to Tunisia that did it. “I have found colour,” he said, ”it has hold of me”. For me it was India and in particular Rajasthan.
My work is in private collections in UK, USA, France, Italy, and Australia. I show work in a number of galleries in Oxfordshire and exhibit regularly in Artweeks. I was the Chair of the Turrill Sculpture Garden and for some years on the Committee of the Oxford Art Society