Thursday 29 November 2012

Coastal Rocks

Here is my offering for this week -  I continue to experiment with a looser use of the materials leaning towards the liberal and enjoyable abstract expressionist style and maintaining the smaller size of painting, please enjoy.





Coastal Rocks


Autumn Forest


Landscape Storm

For more details click here


Friday 23 November 2012

Bob Crossley

Bob Crossley
Abstract painter whose work was inspired by his love of the Cornish landscape


When the abstract painter Bob Crossley moved from Rochdale to St Ives in 1959 he brought with him a solid reputation gained in the lively Manchester arts scene of the 1950s. He was essentially self-taught, his Manchester pictures based on figure or industrial landscape motifs. A degree of realism was subsumed by brisk, expressionistic paint-handling that gave his pictures avant-garde currency.    

The irresistible Cornish landscape did not prevent the inevitable slide – or ascent – towards abstraction, the mode that dominated post-war St Ives art. In response to the work of Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, Terry Frost and many others which he encountered in St Ives, Crossley's painting increasingly expunged references to the external world and preoccupied itself with purely technical and painterly issues. During the 1960s and beyond, therefore, Crossley's vividly coloured and assertive pictures contributed to the power and energy of the St Ives "school".




Despite its long history as an artist's colony, however, St Ives and Crossley maintained a professional distance. Patrick Heron, in spite of also using a Porthmeor studio, had little contact with Crossley and did not use his influence as a critic to promote the northerner's work. Crossley did, however, follow Lanyon, Bryan Wynter and others in exploring nature fully, in his case skiing on Alpine slopes every winter.



Informed by such exhilarating experiences, Crossley's work contributes to the raw experience based energy of modern St Ives painting. His reputation will therefore be tied enduringly to the only genuinely popular abstract movement British art has produced.

Please click here to view a short documentary on the artist


Visit Belgrave Gallery St Ives site for more work by the artist




Wednesday 14 November 2012

Nicolas de Stael



Nicholas de Stael was a French painter known for his highly abstract landscape painting created using thick layers of paint. A dedicated artist who lived for painting, de Stael achieved both wealth and fame in his life time.

Nicolas de Stael was born on Jan. 5, 1914, in St. Petersburg, the son of a wealthy baron. Nicolas's mother encouraged him to draw and paint at a very early age. In 1919 the Russian Revolution forced the family into exile in Poland. Within 2 years his parents were dead, and Nicolas was sent to Brussels to study humanities. In 1932 he entered the Royal Academy of Art there.

In the 1930s, he travelled throughout Europe, including Spain, Italy, Morocco, and Algeria eventually settling in Paris in 1938.

In 1941, he moved to Nice where he met Jean Arp, Sonia Delaunay and Robert Delaunay, and these artists would inspire his first abstract paintings

During the late 1940’s and 50’s de Stael had considerable commercial successes both in Europe and the USA. At the same time he was suffering from exhaustion, insomnia and depression and on March 16, 1955, he committed suicide in Antibes.







As I have limited time to dedicate to my art I am producing some smaller lower cost pieces which to date have been received exceptionally well and I thank my customers who continue to support my work.

Below is a new piece which I have kept close to the style of Nicholas de Stael and feel free to click on the link to view more images and details.













Sunday 11 November 2012

Alex Lowery


Alex Lowery was born in London in 1957. He studied at Bath Academy of Art for his foundation year and subsequently at the Sir John Cass School of Art (1978-9) and the Central School of Art (1979-82). His first London exhibition was held at the Rocket Gallery in 1995 and had his first solo exhibition with Art First in Dec 2000. He now lives and works in Dorset.

He started painting West Bay some twenty years ago and has made his name nationally and in Europe arguably through painting this one unassuming seaside resort.





His work has often been compared to that of the American painter Edward Hopper and English painter Paul Nash for a stillness, strongly contrasting light and shadow, and a way of finding in the banal and ordinary a surprising beauty.





To view more of his work at The Campden Gallery please click here