Paul Wadsworth Exhibition
9th - 31st August 2001

My recent work has been influenced by a trip to the United Arab Emirates.

The climate, the desert landscape, the amazing architecture, the feeling of space and solitude that this part of the world has to offer, all seems to be gradually finding its way into my work.

Gold is a colour I am continually returning to in my paintings, although it's the experimentation with materials, be it collage, or the application of colour that allows the work to emerge.

The sea and its surrounding landscape has also become a source of continual interest. Where I live, in Porthleven Cornwall, I can see the changing moods of the sea and sky and some of my work is about trying to capture these fleeting moments.

Mixed media has become a way of working that allows my paintings to develop with a sense of experimentation, allowing for change and the re-working of the surface. This I find important, as the idea is only a small part of what the final image is about. Sometimes I will re-work an image 3or 4 times before its finished. The original concept has gone out the window along time ago, aiding only as an initial focus. (Gold carries with it a heavy sense of history, time and virtuosity. It also has the potential to be the purely decorative, a signifier of wealth; the ultimate goal of all alchemists and swashbuckling pirates.) .

The trip I had to Dubai led to ideas and work that rolled amazingly well into current work at the time. I had been using the colour gold as key to a large series of paintings and at the time of my trip was looking for further input from another source. The baron landscape, wide open spaces, the solitude and the colours all are finding their way into the paintings. It has also led me into the use of collage to a greater depth than previous, looking for ways to suggest and portray the diverse Arab landscape, its amazing architecture, the desert, the sizzled mountain ranges, the blue seas and its diverse cultures.

My trip was sparked off by an invite from Alison Collins to come and visit her gallery in Dubai with the possibility of future shows.

What an amazing place. On arriving I was dropped off at the gallery at about 11pm. The gallery, sympathetically renovated to its original state, stood in the centre of Dubai, a cultural oasis surrounded by chanting mosques and bustling urban landscape. I was hooked.

The trip led me to days painting in the desert, on deserted beaches with only thousands of hermit crabs to keep me company, to drawing in the city itself, generally surrounded by enthusiastic onlookers. The numerous drawings, paintings, and photos that I brought back are now essential material for current work.

I will be going back to Dubai in Jan 2002 when I am exhibiting in a mixed show at the Majlis gallery, and later as a solo show.

I feel I have only touched on a small part of this experience and I will be experimenting continually with paint and other materials to develop the language to portray this.

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CV:

EDUCATION

1994-97 Falmouth College of Arts-BA (Hon) Fine Art.
1992-94 Ipswich College of Art and Design

CAREER COMMISSIONS

2001 - Trip to Dubai to paint and gather resource material for future exhibitions.
2001 - Worked on a series of paintings based around the United Arab Emirates.
2000 - Series of paintings based on Cornish sea and landscape.
2000 - Series of paintings based around the colour Gold.
2000 - Mixed Media Workshops. 2000-Life Drawing Tuition.
2000 - Shaker House project.
1999 - Portrait commissions Private collections.
1999 - Flora Day paintings for private collections.
1999 - Life Drawing tuition.
1999 - Worked on large series of paintings based on Sunflower imagery.
1998 - Worked for Talking Heads animation Company.
1998 - Worked on a series of paintings based on water.
1998 - Worked on a series of paintings based on Insect imagery.
1997 - Mural Designs for Glastonbury Music Festival.
1997 - Worked on a series of paintings and Drawings based on the Nude Figure.
1994 - Wizard Of Oz stage set design and creation.
1994 - Silver Spoon Sugar Company Mural Design.
199 4- Murals for public spaces.

EXHIBITIONS

2001 - Browns Restaurant-Penzance.
2001 - Creftow Co-Op-Helston
2001 - Lemon Street Gallery-Truro.
2001 - Art For Interiors-London
2001 - Majlis Gallery-Dubai
2001 - Julia Mills Gallery Porthleven
2000 - Chase Arts -Wadebridge.
2000 - Wise Owl Gallery-St Just
2000 - Net Loft Gallery Porthleven .
2000 - Badcocks Gallery-Newlyn
2000 - Fish Pye Gallery St Ives
2000 - Market St Mews Penryn.
2000 - Affordable Arts Fair London.
2000 - Laurdadale House London .
2000 - Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society
1999 - Salt House Gallery-St Ives
1998 - Market St Mews Gallery, Penryn

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