Tony is an invigorating contemporary artist based in Gloucestershire. His work celebrates the pleasure of movement and colour through an original and vibrant style. He creates work which is ambitious, unrestrained, determined and exciting.

Tony has sold works in various locations in England and in the USA, Washington and New York.

Studied Fine Art Painting at University of Gloucestershire and graduated with BA (Hons) in 2003.

“Painting is essentially a two dimensional art and a fascination for me is to create the impression of depth through the use of colour over colour, line over line. Hans Hoffman viewed mass and space as being capable of being created by the “push and pull” of interacting planes producing a sense of movement. “Movement is the expression of life”. The human face and body, with their infinite permutation of movements, have the ability to communicate, or to hide, their feelings, sometimes intentionally and, at others, inadvertently. I enjoy examining these perceived feelings and my reaction to them, expressing them with much more than representation.

The Abstract Expressionists (Motherwell, Kline and De Kooning in particular) Modigliani, Schiele, Cecily Brown, Goya, Matisse, Rembrandt and Auerbach are some of many influences.

My earlier abstractions of Titian’s large mythological works such as “The Andrians” and “Daphne and Actaeon” emphasise multiple nakedness making perfect subjects for exploring their sensuous movement, both overt and hidden, in a different context. Social and political exploratory works such as “Blind Leading the Blind” and “Artists at the Bar” are composed of extracts from famous artists, celebrating their virtuosity in unusual combinations. My “In Denial” series such as “Havana,” depicting student flamenco dancers learning in a crumbling physical/political setting, and “Haven,” a claustrophobic Cornish port painted just before the actual flood at nearby Boscastle, examine our tendency to focus on small problems while ignoring potential disaster; “Asteroid” being a more obvious example.

I use a limited palette with strong colours in unusual combinations. I find acrylic, painted straight from the pot to avoid the dulling effect of mixing with water, to be most suited to my present work with its quick drying quality enabling greatest fluidity of stroke and dragging of colours. I also love the wide range of tone which can be produced from compressed charcoal. Both features are shown in my current Body Language works.”

 

 Exhibitions

1999 Jerwood Drawing Competition, Cheltenham, England

2000 Jerwood Drawing Exhibition, Westend Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany

2004 Cheltenham Art Prize Competition, Cheltenham, England

2004 Royal West of England Academy Open Competition, Bristol, England

2008 Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Open Portrait Competition, Birmingham, England

2012 "Body Language" at the Gallery in Redchurch Street, London, England

2013 "Body Language" at Bankside Gallery,  London, England

2014 "Body Language" at Bankside Gallery, London England

2015 "Body Language" at Bankside Gallery, London, England

2016  "Body Language" at OXO Gallery, London, England

2017  "Cotswold Artists" at Paragon Gallery, Cheltenham, England

2017  "Affordable Art Fair" in Battersea Park, London, England

2018   February exhibition at Paragon Gallery, Cheltenham, England

 

Tony is a Friend of the Royal Academy of Art, London, the Tate Galleries, London and the Old Vic Theatre, London