Passage Painting

"There is a quality of purity and sublimity that we rarely see in art today. And the sublime elicits nothing less than awe." Akbar Husain, Writer International recognition has come later for the 79 year old British scientist and painter Cuillin Bantock. Similarities in story have been drawn between Bantock and American painter Carmen Herrera who has only recently taken the American art market by storm at 94. Considered by some the British equivalent, with his late entrance to the market. Although Bantock is less rigid and softer in both approach and palette, both have strove for formal simplicity and a sense of colour and space in their work with scientific precision. Cuillin Bantock is a British Oxford graduate and professor of Zoology, expert in developmental cytogenetics and comes from a family of highly accomplished British composers. He later became a 60’s graduate of Camberwell College of Art. He was born in the Midlands and spent his childhood on the wild desolate coastline of Northern Wales. Returning to full time painting in 1989 Cuillin applies his scientific knowledge to his painting juxtaposed with a natural flair for colour, texture, space and light. Working with what he calls a ‘catholic’ choice of media; oil, acrylic, watercolour, gouache,conte crayon and lino cuts, Cuillin pieces are figurative and non figurative heavily influenced by his childhood home. Cuillin first exhibited in 1956 with The Royal Society of Painters. Since his return to full time painting he has exhibited in solo and mixed shows across the UK, predominantly in London. He has also exhibited in Canada and the US. Over the years Bantock’s paintings have become more abstract. “ ‘more or less’ gives way to the old saw ‘less is more’, where in quite simple terms one looks for ‘something beyond’, quieter, emptier, but at the same time not in the least flaccid, indeed tougher. Put it all another way. Life is complicated enough already, so why add to that with yet more complexity?” Cuillin Bantock