|
In my
recent work, dating from mid 2008 to the present, as seen in Gallery 4,
I have constructed actual layers to make the paintings more like
reliefs. In each piece the shapes and organization of the layers
addresses the character of a particular location, the colour acts as a
unifying agent as the colour areas are not necessarily confined within
one layer but may go across two or more layers. The work does not set
out to make a representation or copy of a particular location but to
make an object which acts like the site in the way it defines space.
Colour suggests the presence in the space, which gives it its particular
character. The colour is not a copy of something seen. Its purpose is to
make the space come alive.
I
usually start with a paper model, from which I construct a foam- board
maquette to a scale based on a 12 inch square. From this I scale up the
piece by doubling, or trebling both the height and width and the depth
or thickness of each layer. In fact the scale could be further increased
if the opportunity arises. The pieces I have made so far are constructed
from wood but I would like to make them out of other materials as well
if the opportunity arises. On a large scale they would make very
powerful sculptures in metal, with colour achieved by treating the metal
in different ways, with heat or chemical action, for example.
Gallery
3 shows a collection of works on paper, which includes drawings,
paintings and woodblock prints. They are mostly based on landscape and
many of them have developed from my explorations of the ruins of a World
War 1 military camp on Cannock Chase. Some of the “woodblock prints “are
also based on this but a number of them are developed from my experience
of several visits to New York.
Woodblock printmaking is a medium which produces interesting images and
I spent just over a year at the Wolverhampton Print Workshop producing
them in editions ranging from ten to twenty. During this time, in 2006,
I was awarded a bursary to visit China to study with Wang Chao, a
Chinese
printmaker, in his “Purple Bamboo Studio” in the
China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, China. I studied traditional
Chinese methods and took the opportunity to visit some of the major art
museums in Shanghai, about 100 miles from Hangzhou, before returning
home.
In Gallery 2 are all the paintings I have made
developing directly from my visits to New York. They are all acrylics on
canvas and I have concentrated on the boldness and magic of this city
and the way space is confined by towering architecture soaring into the
sky, by using exaggerated colour, thickly applied paint and edgy
abstraction. All these works have been exhibited, either in solo shows
or in group shows. “Roof Garden” won the Schott Prize in the
Staffordshire Open Exhibition in 2007, when it was shown alongside “Last
Exit to Brooklyn”
Gallery 1 shows all the paintings I made which have
developed from my explorations of the ruins of the World War 1 camps on
Cannock Chase and from my resulting interest in the Great War. Thick
impasto paint and strong exaggerated colour is a feature of these
paintings which are also quite large in scale. My aim was to express the
strong emotions associated with the horrors of the Great War and the way
that the site affected me as if that time so long ago were still
pressing on my consciousness. I wanted the paintings to have a strong
impact on the viewer just as the place had made its impact on me.
I trained as a painter and printmaker in the mid
1960s and then became a teacher whilst continuing to paint and exhibit
when I could. In 2003 I took early retirement from my position as head
of a large art department in a big 11 – 18 Comprehensive School in the
Midlands, after teaching in different parts of the UK during my career.
Since then I have pursued a career as a full time artist and have
exhibited widely, both in solo shows and in group exhibitions. Between
2006 and 2009 I studied for a Masters Degree in fine art at Birmingham
City University School of Art, graduating with distinction in 2008. In
addition to my activities as an artist I also conduct workshops and
summer schools in colleges and galleries and for art societies and
groups.
Gallery 5 New work
and work in progress
The work
in gallery 4 is extending from the wall surface into three dimensional
space. In gallery 5 much of the new and developing ideas continue this
trend into free- standing sculptures. The photographs taken in the
studio show how these works developed from initial collaged structures
into tree-like forms each about three feet tall. They can be
free-standing individual structures but I intend to make multiples with
slight variations of colour and form which can then be organized to be
experienced as a group. I also want to make larger versions of these
forms, perhaps six or seven feet high so that they can be experienced by
walking between them.
David
Culshaw
Privacy policy
Home |
Galleries
|
CV |
Feedback |
Contact us
|
Purchase |
Links
|
Terms & Conditions
|
Help
|
