Artist Statement & CV
What inspires my work is the landscape and the elements(natural & synthetic) that shape it and the paintings I produce are a blend of memory and photographs. I want my work to be an expression, a captured memory, a personal response to a view, which is why I prefer to work in a studio environment. In the studio the scene, the view, becomes abstract and as such I find there is less desire to compete with reality.
I find that the outcome of my workings very depended on mood (self &weather) and the need to be continually investigating the process of putting paint onto a surface. I find this process absorbing and often quite intense. I rarely use brushes, my main tools been palette knives and cloth. For this method of working I find oil paint is the ideal medium, I love its plasticity, its texture and its depth of colour and I have no hesitation in mixing in other materials and mediums if I believe they add to the work.
Having been brought up by the coast, I find the pull of the sea and coast strongest. It is here that we see and encounter the true energy and beauty of nature…beautiful one moment, the next sublime.
I take inspiration form many artists, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Peter Lanyon, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Eardley and Turner amongst others. Regarding art movements, I would say that the American Abstract Expressionists and the St. Ives School, both of the 1950’s are continually influencing my thinking and approach.
Education;
BA (Hons/ 2:1) Fine Art, 2014, Bath Spa College of Art & Design
BSc (Hons) Engineering, 1976, Royal College of Science
Awards:
Honorary Member of The American Institute of Architects (2008)
The Bill Curtin Medal / For Innovation in Engineering
Shows:
Fresh Meat, Bath Spa, 1st Year Exhibition, Dec 2011
Flux, 2nd Year Exhibition, Dec 2012
Final Year Show, Bath Spa University, June 2014
What Came First, Old Truman Brewery, London, July 2014
Bath Society of Artists Annual Exhibition,, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, June 2015
Bath Society of Artists Exhibition 2023
"Landscapes in a Square Format", Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset, Nov. 2015
'Coast", Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset. June 2016
Tresco Gallery, Isles of Scilly, Summer 2106
St. Ives Society of Artists, Spring Exhibition 20
Contact: mclaughlin.tony80@gmail.com