Fred A & Ginger R Painting

As a child refugee,survival was the key in the early years.England afforded the opportunity to resume schooling, and where a spell of service in the Royal Navy was followed by London University. I gained an honours degree in engineering
which laid the foundation to a career in international building construction.
A talent for drawing was evident quite early, to be nurtured later atSt.Martin's and Central School of Art.
A 'double life' ensued where the urge to paint, at times suppressed, ultimately won to a point of now being a professional artist for 20 years.

Not so much the subject, but the act of painting is the 'Leitmotiv' of my work.
However,the strongest focus has been the human form, particularly in its moving aspect. A strong closeness to life is perhaps at the root of it, and may be linked to my early exposure to loss of life on an inhuman scale. I have no wish to paint the horror of it and on the contrary find comfort in themes far removed from it -beautiful figures and faces,movement and dance.
Portraiture in a similar way I find rewarding, in its closeness with another human, allowing me to 'recreate' a
being. Landscape work came relatively late, and there too, I find harmonies with shapes that echo the human - trees and hills.
Lucien Freud has been a great influence in my figure painting. In moving themes Marcel Duchamp has inspired me, and David Bomberg was my guiding light in paintings of rooftops in Provence.