Christopher English

I was born in 1950 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Started work in a drawing office in 1970, for a Harrogate company of chemical combustion engineers. I wrote poems in my spare time. Also I started to paint expressionistic and symbolist narrative type pictures of my poetry in oil colour. In order to follow my interest in painting I did Fine Art degree at the School of Art and Design at Loughborough University.

I show the symbolic images in my paintings as a complement to the imagery evoked in my poems. Ideas for the symbolism in my art derive from my poetry. I start a painting with a combination of several images from a poem. Discovery and suggestion from my imagination emerge during the painting process and are a supplement to the poetry.

I was made redundant from work in 1985. I decided that there was no point continuing in a drawing office and 'engineer' environment. So, at the age of 35 I became a mature art student. First, I did a foundation course in art and design at Harrogate Art College. I then went on to do a Fine Art painting degree at the School of Art and Design at Loughborough University where I graduated in 1994. That same year I participated in a national collective art exhibition at the Alexander Palace, North London. Shortly after I
shared an art studio with a group of artists in Loughborough for a while, until I had a severe femur and pelvis fracture. During recovery, after a long stay in hospital, I started to make my art web site & compiled my book of my poems & art work. I would like to mention my art activities before art school, while I was working full time,
during the 1970s & early 1980s. I participated in many poetry readings and writers' workshops in Yorkshire. Participated in collective art exhibitions at the Arcade Gallery. Harrogate, some times part of the Harrogate Arts Festival. Also participated in the Bradford Arts Festival,
part of a collective exhibition at the Community Arts Centre, Little Germany, Bradford. I have h...