Richard Grinter - Impressions
of Romance
The Mission Theatre, Bath 10th – 14th February
2015
The Mission Theatre in Bath was host to an exhibition of work by artist
Richard Grinter entitled “Impressions of Romance”. Grinter studied art at Amersham School of Art
in 1988 and then followed a career in graphic design, although he maintained a
passion for drawing and painting. Moving
to Bath he says inspired him to move from life drawing back to “plein air”
painting. This passion and appreciation
of Bath and its predominantly Georgian architecture is evident in Grinter’s
paintings. Most of the work in the
exhibition featured recognisable landmarks and features of Bath with it’s
typical yellow ochre stone buildings.
Although predominantly Bath, the exhibition also had examples of other
paintings such as seascapes, and paintings of Venice. On going upstairs to the café I discovered a
few more works, which included three nudes.
These seemed to lack the spontaneity of his “plein air” work
though. I wondered about the title, “Impressions
of Romance”, and wondered was this Grinter’s description of a romanticised view
of Bath, or was it simply that the exhibition opening coincided with Valentines
day, I’m not sure. The paintings didn’t
conjure up romantic in my mind, more like an impression of enthusiasm, for
these paintings were clearly enthusiastically and spontaneously painted “plein
air”. They undoubtedly had the feel of
an immediate response to a scene in front of the artist. In some there
was evidence of work being over-painted over an initial composition,
perhaps an artistic decision. I wondered
if this indicated a lack of forethought or just an excited artistic impulse and
immediacy. Perhaps in some paintings the
oil paint had been overworked and over manipulated resulting in the colours
becoming rather grey and drab and loosing vibrancy. This I decided was probably the opposite to
what the artist had wanted to portray when he was painting the impression of a
city that he loved. These greyer tones
reminded me of the paintings of Sickert.
I always associate Sickert with grey drab tones and he also did some
paintings of Bath. Although realistic
and recognisable, the technique used is very painterly, the brush strokes and knife
strokes are clearly evident. I did think
his loose style of painting seemed quite a contrast to a previous career in
graphic design. These paintings included
no straight lines or accuracy in this respect and I did also sometimes feel a
lack of depth to some of the work in that there was no real sense of aerial
perspective and as a consequence some seemed rather flat.
The display of the work seemed rather haphazard. Most were suspended on wires of varying
lengths and others placed lower down but in a very disjointed seemingly
unplanned way. What added to this
perhaps were the variations in frames too, with some very plain, some ornate
and with varying widths despite the paintings being in a very similar style.
There were a couple of paintings that I especially liked, this one
of a Bath Crescent is my overall favourite.
I think perhaps it appears more realistic and feasible than some of the others and to me it does capture the sense
of a sunlit day with the light on the warm yellow stone and the cooler blue
shadows.
My overall feeling of the exhibition was that it was a display of
work by a man, who although is not necessarily successful with every painting,
is enthusiastic about art and his subject.
There were a lot of works on display and he is obviously committed, and
not a studio artist, instead he is outside at the source capturing his
impressions and working very much in the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment