Exhibition featured artist Phil Morley
“Why you should always look back”, Acrylics on wooden panel
“I am still exploring” Phil confesses when asked about his art, “So far it’s mainly acrylic landscapes, but there is the odd mackerel”
A relative newcomer to the easel he explains that although his choice of style and materials is not yet defined, his direction is clear. “I have spent many years taking photographs to capture the landscape and my travels, especially those fleeting, unrepeatable moments when it reveals something special. And now I want to be able to revisit and reinterpret those and similar experiences through paint.”
However he readily acknowledges that he has some serious catching up to do, "I was pretty good at drawing as a kid, but dropped art at 13 and didn’t really pick up a paintbrush, aside from DIY chores, for 45 years."
“Much of my career was spent in marketing and communications and I went on to become an award-winning creative director. But I never needed to go beyond drawing stickmen sketches as I could rely on a wonderful team of designers to craft and execute my ideas.”
It was perhaps this frustration of not being able to do actual art at work that led him to notice a small poster near his office advertising an abstract landscape painting class and signing up on train home.
“I turned up to the first session early to find a group of mainly female artists behind a bunch of easels all clustered together in a corner of a large room. I was a bit confused as to why they were all squeezed so closely together leaving most of the space unoccupied. The chattering hushed as a young handsome guy in a dressing gown strode into the room. Thinking he must be the eccentric tutor, it took until he disrobed and stood posing a few feet from the throng before I realised what was going on. Turns out I didn’t read the information very carefully, the last term was abstract landscape, this term was abstract life drawing. ”
He enjoyed the class but unfortunately the art centre unexpectedly closed so he didn’t get to try out what he had intended. It wasn’t until a few years later when he reduced his working week that he tried out a class in printmaking, and the urge to create returned. He enjoyed the challenge of linocuts especially the reduction technique that required some serious reverse thinking and risk taking.
“This is why I get up early”, Acrylics on wooden panel
More recently, a friend who is a portrait painter, asked if Phil would like to join him at a life drawing class - based on his previous experience he declined, but along with another friend the three of them began meeting weekly to paint and draw and chat about the world. Phil said: “Shortly after that, I joined WWAG and did my first “proper" painting - and by that I mean that it was completed and not just making a mess with paint.
“It was of a mackerel and I was quite proud of it and showed it at my first ever exhibition – it didn’t sell but to be honest, the market for people wanting fish portraits is quite limited."
He is now focussing on landscapes and actively experimenting, “I’ve taken a few online and in-person courses and as I become more familiar with tools, materials and techniques I want to produce more abstract images. I don’t want to replace or reproduce what I get from my camera, I want to develop another means of expression that is a more emotional and subjective response.”
Phil will be sharing his progress at the West Wycombe Art Group’s Summer Exhibition as he has been selected as the featured artist. His work will be exhibited alongside the works of over twenty other exceptionally skilled artists who together form the respected West Wycombe Art Group. This exhibition is in on West Wycombe Village Hall and runs over the August Bank Holiday weekend, 28 to 31 August from 10 until 5 every day. Entry is free and most of the art is for sale.