Ian Painting

My work evolves mainly around the human figure which is for me an inexhaustible field of research. I like tension and movement in my work using compositions where bodies seem either to stretch, to fall or to huddle up. In drawings I like my pencil to ramble free on the paper looking for the right form to grasp before sharpening some lines and adding the colour work to mark out areas I want to highlight. In paintings I focus on the study of the flesh using all the possibilities given by oil painting, its richness of colours and texture. I do not mean my work to convey any particuliar intellectual or controvertial statements other that the expression of the primal joy and need to paint. After many years teaching life drawing in art schools I now dedicate all my time to painting in the studio.