…found myself subsequently painting much more than playing.
As the son of an amateur artist I became familiar from an early age with the strange smell of linseed oil and turpentine. I attended classes at Mansfield School of Art from the age of ten and the charcoaled fingers and fleeting glimpses into the life-classrooms were indelible experiences and stimulated my interest in the opposite of posed stillness. Following which, my involvement in studying figurative movement and sport combined, for if not playing football or cricket every daylight hour I was sketching some athletic action or other. I remember at this time I entered a competition in a national newspaper with a crayoned action drawing of my idol, goalkeeper Bert Williams of Wolves and England fame, and won first prize of a box of Reeves watercolour paints – which I still have! Ever since playing in goal for the junior school team – just to emulate him a little bit was powerfully all embracing.
Anyway I somehow managed to remain undiscovered by the scouts from Forest, Wolves or Notts County and found myself subsequently painting much more than playing. However perhaps just as gratifyingly I did later appear at the great Wembley Stadium … with displays of my paintings.
…painting in oils is therapeutic and challenging
Imagery & the Colour of Movement
I now always paint in oils and acrylics, using brush and knife in a range of textures from a thin brushed wash through to a heavy knifed impasto. My application has developed over 35 years or so by mostly being more concerned with the loose application of positive colours rather than the clinical line and detailed illustrative precision. It has proved a steep learning curve attempting to impact the desired emotion in this way. The pliability and colour-fusion of painting in oils is therapeutic and challenging. The same process is easier applied but the end product harder to attain when using fast-drying acrylics for, unlike oils, it just refuses to be pushed around. It demands a kind of strata-painting in order to build up the same desired interference of tone and mark or ghosting effect – something I aspire to in trying to capture the transient colour of movement in its millisecond instant – action in stillness.
Brian began painting at junior school where teachers recognised his talent and encouraged him to attend art college. Following an apprenticeship in engineering, Brian launched his own production engineering company, filing a number of development patents and later became a successful entrepreneur – managing businesses involved in the design and manufacture of mining machinery, acrylic fabrications, textiles equipment, sportswear and screenprinting development – still painting in his spare time. In 1990 he decided to become a full-time artist. Since then his work has been commissioned and collected by businesses and sports personalities. His unique ability to ’capture the moment’ makes his work particularly relevant to the sponsor yet remaining appealing to the casual viewer. Such is its appeal you can find Brians work in boardrooms, reception areas, offices and the private houses of business leaders, as collectors or as a gift from colleagues.
