SUMMARY
I am interested in using the creation of art as a philosophical and experimental tool as well presenting a more holistic portrayal of the world.
I use a combination of controlling structure, either schematic or spontaneous, and various types of evolving image sequences to explore a particular idea and my responses to it.
Currently my creative output takes the form of a number of painting and drawing styles.
However, in the past I have been involved with performance art, environmental constructions, sculpture/assemblages and conceptual art in numerous manifestations.
BACKGROUND
Growing up in a remote Wiltshire village in the late Fifties/early Sixties I had a highly creative childhood.
I won a number of art awards and had a play performed while still at school.
However, the predominant passion of my earliest years was science and technology.
My profound and sustained interest in visual art began in the early Seventies and by the latter part of the decade I had invented my idiosyncratic approach to art which combines visual art forms with processes from music, literature/theatre, and all the sciences. I have continued to extend and refine this creative procedure to the present day.
In 1976 I coined the term Ionism to cover this art style - i.e. an ism without a prefix! This was partly a tongue in cheek response to the proliferation of isms in art and partly to allude to the “ionic” nature of my work with its combination of ideas from disparate disciplines. I also initiated the “Alchemist Project”, which was an attempt at perpetual creativity where I would write down a continuous list of art ideas derived from my immediate surroundings. This began in 1977 and eventually petered out at the beginning of 1983. Thousands of pages were produced which have not yet been published in full.
At this time I was experimenting with a wide variety of media; including performance pieces, music, installations and environments, sculpture, painting and graphic art. Most of this work has subsequently been lost. I did not concentrate on painting and drawing until the early Eighties.
ART STYLES
I work in a large number of styles, including:
MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART: Is a developmental art form with diverse arrangements of image sequences and either a spontaneous diffusive development or a controlled linear elaboration. It is further sub divided into complex works and “solos”.
IONIST PORTRAITS: Are characterisations of people (historical or friends and family) using structures containing symbol and shape sequences.
MEDITATIVE LANDSCAPES: Are portrayals of the natural world combining serial forms with observation. Using this method I hope to give a more complete representation of the natural world.
THE COUNTRY BOYS: These are fictitious characters that produce all my other painting styles; including surreal, abstract and experimental paintings plus other art forms. I invented the first pseudonym in 1975 - he came from a Jimi Hendrix song - and subsequent ones in 1984 and 1987/1988.
I still produce conventionally figurative paintings - mainly to commission but occasionally for relaxation.
