Chris Abbott

I was a late starter at most things. I got a BA(Hons) degree and a social work qualification at the age of 53 and did not start painting until I was aged 60. The last 3 years I have had some excellent tuition from a number of local artists, notably Rosemary Wels, Matthew Swain and Linda Baistow through the “Workers Educational Association”.

The paintings in this exhibition reflect a range of ideas I have wandered through in this journey, including childhood memories in an attempt to recapture the simplicity of that time and to break through the constraints that time binds your memory to. Another idea is death and all the emotions that are not spoken about, especially if you are a man, as it grows ever closer in my life.

Colour, Line and form and how this has an enormous impact upon my mood, what is reality and why memory is sometimes completely different and how I can express this difference.

Art has given me a fantastic lease of life and a new way of expressing thoughts, feeling, emotion and ideas that are both challenging and important to me, perhaps my way of seeing things is not so strange after all.

In the last 12 months I have had work accepted at a number of exhibitions including:
Leicester Open Art Exhibition
Chelsea Open Art Exhibition
‘Patchings farm’ Summer Exhibition
E.A.C Art Awards, The Mall Gallery, London
View from the Top Gallery

I have also sold a number of paintings, much to my surprise. I work in watercolours, acrylic, pencil, pastels and mixed media.

Artists that have influenced my development are Kurt Jackson, William Selby and Patrick Caulfield, but everyday I discover new artists and new styles that really inspire me to view things in a different light. It is this continuing discovery that makes painting, art and my life so exciting and challenging.

Email : christabbott@fsmail.net