About
EARLY DAYS...painting by accident?
Anthony has been a professional musician for most of his life and, through a set of circumstances, this directly led to his 'requirement' to paint. Oddly enough though, this was a purely objective decision and nothing at all to do with artistic urge or self expression.
​Although he started to tinker with paint in the 1980's, it was the next decade that found him with rather a large recording studio. The walls were big, there were lots of them, and they were empty. So he decided to paint reasonably large acrylic still-life and interiors to decorate the walls. He made his canvasses out of anything to hand and set about, quite rapidly, to develop a style that proved to be uniquely identifiable and, quite unexpectedly, very saleable. The result was both solo and group exhibitions in galleries for several years and life was good.
REALISM...testing!
All was going well, but there was always this nagging doubt...can he REALLY paint. As it happened (providence?), he took a break from painting to study for a degree in pastoral ministry, which involved a great deal of time in study, formation, and training. This break lasted around four years, but when he was ready to start painting again the nagging doubt was still there. So he made two decisions; to change his medium to oils and to paint realism.
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His subjects of choice were landscape and wildlife. He had to start again, learning about colour (in a more natural setting), brush strokes and specialist brushes, and most importantly, observation. Sales wise, this was extremely successful, with both private and gallery sales. He worked hard and eventually managed to produce high quality works of realism, even bordering on hyper-realism.
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However, eventually though, he came across a BIG problem...he was no longer enjoying his painting
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The problem was that realism didn't prove to be satisfying and eventually he felt that his work had become predictable and monotonous. He yearned to regain the excitement of painting, so he made the decision to return to his roots and resume the journey which only artistic experimentation can truly inspire...and for Anthony, that's the road to Expressionism. There are many motivations to paint but, for him, the thrill of painting rests in large bristle brushes filled with lush oil paint without the security of knowing exactly what that stroke will produce.
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When you're a painter, art is a journey. You might never get to where you want to go, but along the road there are successes, woes, joys, and surprises. The journey is the exciting thing about art. It's what makes the time invested in it worthwhile.
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As he says; "OK, my current work isn't yet Expressionism, but it is the inspiration behind my work. To experiment...to rely less on technique...to see all, and yet blind myself to detail...
to paint less, to feel more".