Paul Calcutt Warwickshire, United Kingdom
I have been working as a freelance ceramics and glass restorer since being professionally trained in the early 1990's. As such, I have carried out projects for The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC, Glasgow Museums, The Conservation Centre, Salisbury and The National Palace Museum, Taiwan. I decided to re-utilise my skills accumulated over several decades and apply them to canvas.
My influences are many and varied from Pop Art to Surrealism, Abstract, Expressionism to Impressionism. I adore exploring and trying out new things with acrylic medium and find the process therapeutic and very satisfying, I hope this is reflected in my work. I rarely work with a fixed objective, but usually quite vague and then let my instinct and intuition take over, working quite slowly in order for the painting to lead me to where it wants to go to some degree. Having been diagnosed with chronic and complex PTSD in 2007, I find the creative process very helpful to combat my depression and anxiety, and i am a great believer that, to some extent art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. I also appreciate a little subtle humour in a work that may at first seem quite serious, particularly in surrealism where you have to look more than once to actually see what you are seeing. All of the materials I use are of the highest standard. I use an isolation layer when the painting is finished, prior to varnishing, to protect the painting from the cleaning away of varnish in the future. Each work is supplied with a numbered , signed certificate of authenticity.
