"Familiar Territories: Alan Smith Page"
2001-08-06 until 2001-09-03
Shire Pottery Gallery and Studios
Alnwick, , UK United Kingdom

A sparkling and freely-drawn summer exhibition of new watercolour and acrylic paintings by graphic and visual artist Alan Smith Page, showing with hand-thrown studio porcelain by Ivar Mackay. Working in a commercial environment taught me to draw quickly and confidently and in the late 1970's I became adept at using Magic Markers on visuals and presentations. With work flowing in, and little time free to give over to my first love painting, I pursued a long and busy career as graphic designer, lecturer and freelance illustrator. Now with the help and support of my wife, Caroline, I have put aside all commercial commitments to concentrate on developing a new direction in painting.

In this exhibition I have used a number of media and subjects in an exploration of the familiar - interiors and exteriors, still life arrangements and objects of the everyday.

I enjoy working at speed. I like the uncertainty of watercolour and paint freely with large brushes, letting the medium flow and fuse on the paper. Painting in acrylic, I am more concerned with the structure of objects and I try to leave evidence of the under-drawing to create, at times, a sense of transparency. I prefer an economy of brushwork in either medium and am unafraid to leave areas of untouched paper.

Looking back over the past year I realise now that painting is not for the fainthearted. Despite an early entry into the visual arts and success as a designer, I have found the inner journey into painting to be the most difficult thing I have attempted in my life.

Alan Smith Page – August 2001

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