( Prime - page 3 of 32 )

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PRIME:  PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

        There were a number of influences that initially affected my insight into the phenomena of colour.   My mother, who studied at the Hammersmith School of Art, London, evacuated to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, had continued for a short time at the Bath School of Art, when the Second World War made it impossible for her to go on with formal studies.   My father, a design engineer, would paint small watercolour pictures, when we visited places as a family, and it was he, who first explained to me, how to manipulate the medium.   Television in the time of my childhood, was experienced as black, white, and in-between shades of grey horizontally hatched lines.   I vividly recall the news bulletins, especially when superpowers, America and Russia raced to the moon.   Encyclopaedias and National Geographic magazines at home, were mostly black on white; and one could only imagine, what the photographs might have been like in colour, and a desire within me to impose colour on such images, developed.  

 

The Painter on his way to work Vincent Van Gogh, August 1888  Kaiser-Friedrich Museum

    

      Then came the advent of colour television with its integral manipulation of red, blue, and green light, which attempted to colour worlds, far beyond my experience.   My parents however, understanding my natural curiosity, introduced me to the paintings within the National Gallery in London, and especially the local Museum of Art, within my hometown of Swindon, amongst others.   I was allowed to spend many contented hours in quiet contemplation, in almost religious awe of such works.   I thrilled at the vibrant and rich colour of the French Impressionists, and was especially drawn to the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Edgar Degas.   "How come", I thought, "were these men, able to see such vivid colour in life", which at the time, I felt I could only imagine.

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