Paul Powis, Artist
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I began my art training at the Birmingham College of Art and Design, studying a foundation course in Art and Design in 1968. I then went on to study at Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1973, gaining a BA Hons in Fine Art. On finishing my training as an abstract painter I began lecturing in London and the Provinces which spanned for 25 years.

I have lectured in Drawing and Painting at the University of Central England since 1988. Having exhibited extensively since my student days, I have built up an international reputation as a landscape painter.

My exhibitions have appeared across the country at prestigious venues such as the Mall Galleries, the Royal College of Art, the Royal Festival Hall and the Medici Gallery in London. My work has also appeared at municipal museums and art galleries throughout the UK as well as America. Most famously perhaps, my painting ‘Rape’ appeared in an advert for Volkswagen, achieving worldwide recognition and being exhibited in the Museum of Modern Illustration in New York. I am also lucky enough for my work to have been shown in the ‘Best of British Illustration’ exhibition for the last seven years.

I have travelled widely, which I enjoy immensely, working in countries such as France, Spain, Italy, the United States and Mexico. Closer to home I have lived and worked in London, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. My work is predominantly about subjective colour and vibrant mark making, which are used in both an abstract and representational way. By looking at the rhythmic structures of trees and foliage within the landscape I investigate the dynamic rhythms within nature. The paintings are finally resolved to create order and balance.

Whilst in London my work was primarily abstract-large canvases with a constructivist, mathematical and geometric structure and use of colour.

Work went hand in hand with gallery visits, concerts and an active social life. Living near the Thames I frequently cycled up and down the embankment and along the river to Kew where I often took in the shapes and textures of the environment around me.

Once I moved to Worcester I was immediately inspired by the landscape of Worcestershire. I started to make small paintings about the landscape and began to have work published as book covers and illustrations. However, I did find that this creative energy was continually sapped by an ever-increasing workload as a lecturer and became determined to ease out of education and become a professional artist.

Now as a professional artist I find I have an inexhaustible supply of creativity and am continually exploring new avenues as well as investigating current interests. I live in an artistic household, my wife Sara Hayward is an established artist and we give each other constructive criticism. I am also influenced by great artists such as Balthus, Corot, Hopper, Matisse, Mondrian, Picasso and Sisley.

My studio is white with a beech wooden floor and the walls are covered with paintings in various stages of completion. I like working on paper and tend to be more experimental and take more risks with paper. As an abstract painter who is known primarily for landscape work, I constantly blur the boundaries between abstraction and representation. Larger work is developed on wooden panels and canvases. Working from the other paintings around me in the studio I modify and change the information and colour.

Thus the paintings become sequential and one of a series about a particular place. I use a lot of brushes when painting, 20 brushes in an hour is typical. I never throw brushes away since worn-down brushes are great for scumbling. For reference in the studio I use colour studies made on location, photographs, memory, but more often these days work from other paintings. I also compile reference material on the studio wall. Over the last year I have developed an extensive art library and I refer constantly to the exhibition catalogues of other painters.

Before I start painting I like to do T’ai Chi exercises, which loosens up the muscles in the body and helps focus the mind. Since I started this regime a year ago the quality of my mark making has become more fluid, and both concentration and perception have improved. From February to October I like to work outside on larger pieces. I use a hospital trolley for my paints that come in 2 litre tubs.

The trolley gives me the flexibility to wheel it around to where ever I want to work. When I’m working abroad I tend to set up a temporary studio and work from tubes. All my painting is done in the morning before it gets too hot. As I work so intensely I like to balance my day with sketching and photography on location, which inevitably means walking in the hills and along coasts and estuaries. At the moment I am becoming more interested in the reflective qualities of water so I am spending more time by the sea, lakes and estuaries, where the form changes according to tide and light. Once a place has been found that has the potential for a composition, it is just a matter of waiting for the lighting conditions. This demands patience. Shadows and the tonal range of lighting conditions are important in my work. For reference I make colour studies and take lots of photographs.

Other Artists *

Gordon King || Barbara Brody || Joan Somerville || Doug Hyde || Rolf Harris || Govinder Nazran || Mackenzie Thorpe || Reuben Colley || Joy Kirton-smith || Lawrence Coulson || Mark Spain || Alan Hunt || Royo Artist || Robert Heindel || Paul Horton || Alan Ingham || Nel Whatmore || Paul Powis || Sarah Jane Szikora ||