About The Artist

My paintings are full of imperfections. This is the way that I want them, I am philosophically opposed to “perfection” in art and I don’t believe that it exists anyway, here on Earth. Man is a fallen creature who kills and maims his own kind repeatedly; maybe God is perfect, but there are no perfect human beings. I am concerned with God and His will on Earth; I believe that the Creation of God can be seen everywhere, if one has eyes to see and ears to hear. By God I mean the ultimate creator of the whole universe. God reveals himself through nature, and by strange sequences of events commonly regarded as “co- incidence” “serendipity” and “synchronicity”. In my paintings there are elements of “chance” which I have emphasized in paint. I rely on the channeling of spirits and the karma of God whenever I paint; this is the thing that fascinates me about painting, and keeps me going. I am opposed to the idea of the regulation and policing of art; that is fascism. Art has never harmed anyone. The police have. My paintings are analogous to jazz and rock music. I am fully Rocked, and I have been since I was a teenager, mainly by the MC5 and Hawkwind. Recently I have begun to paint musicians and artists from photographs that I have found on- line. I never copy anything, but I enter the spirit of the artist I choose, and thus paint the artist in the way that I see them. It is a bit like walking along the “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood. It is the artists you choose that are significant. I live in Cornwall the most south- westerly extreme of the UK. It was here that I finally found peace, and communion with nature, and a relationship with the sea. It was from observing the sea that I learnt to paint in oils. I am a dissident UK. artist. My work is only for aficionados. I have travelled extensively in Europe, I am an an admirer of Rouault, Soutine and Van Gogh I use oil paint because it is a far more flexible medium than acrylic. I have emphasized the irregularities and texture of my paintings over the course of thirty years. Each of my paintings is entirely different from the other, I believe that it is essential to exploit the awkwardness that arises from the human condition, rather than to aspire to an ersatz notion of perfection. There is a great deal of different texture in my work which is impossible to achieve using the nasty acrylic stuff. These textures and surfaces produced from oil paint are essential to the appreciation of the paintings, I never like to repeat myself; whenever I begin a new painting I create something original and new. I am fundamentally an expressionist, I am influenced by abstract expressionism; often I have to leave my paintings in a horizontal position to dry, just as many of the abstract expressionists did. My paintings are full of subtleties and nuances related to texture and touch which only the cognoscenti can understand. The paintings of the Porthleven Harbour of refuge are about ninety percent done outdoors. I believe in the magic of plein air painting. As a student I worked in gloss enamel paint and coal tar solution. This experience has informed my current work. I think of myself as an avant -garde artist, and not someone who wants to “turn the clock back”. I am also influenced by the minimalist movement, I create patterns in my paintings which are at times simple and almost geometric. It is impossible as an artist not to be influenced by all of these avant- garde tendencies. If you are obsessed by art then my work is for you! You can read my autobiography called “The Boogie Man” which is available from Amazon. My website is at www.douglaslyell.com