Paul Tora

I have been painting in oils since 1998. My favourite theme is that of cities,especially Venice, created with lively, loosely-drawn figures that express both the light and the life of the city. My work frequently crosses the border between impressionism and expressionism with emphasis on the transcendent beauty of light and the inner stillness of the moment captured.

Graduate of Bristol University
Qualifications in law and languages
Five years tuition in art at Roger Dennis studios, Devon.
I am influenced by the later impressionist movement, especially Bonnard and the post-impressionists as they merge into expressionism.
I paint in oils because my preferred method is to blend layer after layer on the canvas using the oil's slow drying time,
Initially a painter of somewhat reserved coloured greys, I have recently warmed up my palette to include reds and violets to their deepest and fullest extent.
My palette is remarkably similar to that of the impressionists - little more is needed than cadmium red , alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, yellow ochre and burnt umber and titanium white
I work almost exclusively from material collected on site, having recently returned from a tour of Northern Italy
My paintings are hung in various public buildings e.g the Alice Cross Centre, Teignmouth. The smaller ones are to be found in many houses in Devon, where I now live, and London, where I was born.

Kingsbridge - Studies in Light 2007
Kingsbridge - Town Harbour studies 2009
Birdwood Gallery Totnes - July 4-11 2015 "My Venice",
Twenty-five large oil paintings of Venice. Figurative paintings that sit on the border of impressionism and expressionism and with a strong abstract content