Michael Pell

The son of an artist my formative years were spent surrounded by painters, printmakers and designers.  I grew up playing in and exploring Art School studios and gallery spaces, always being encouraged to make and create my own art. Earliest memories include the smell of oil paints, watching dad draw and paint on family holidays and visits to my godfathers gallery and studio in Solva.

After a Foundation Art course at Banbury I spent three wonderful years studying at Bath Academy of Art, based at the idyllic Corsham Court. The teaching and environment were superb and Corsham students were encouraged, and hungry to soak up the creative influences of the day. Many exciting and important artists from London visited and hours of heated debate and discussion took place in the studios, and pubs of Corsham! Certain elements were key, the primacy of drawing, an acknowledgement of the value of context and analysis, and a stressing and understanding of technique and crafting. Lasting and forming influences include a love of printmaking, British painters of the 1950’s, the Cornish art scene, Abstract Expressionism, live music (Punk, Reggae, Ska) the architecture of Bath, country churches, and beer. Over time these influences have remained and now sit alongside others. Two creative sons and wife that show me life is to be lived, travel (Venice, Berlin, Greece, Morocco) my own teaching, photography, sport, and my studio muse, Scamp the hound! My current studio practice reflects all these influences and in making these images, I have considered the aboutness of places I visit and inhabit, and, how to capture visually the memories and emotions of a particular moment. The aim is to create works where a sense of place or moment can be absorbed by the viewer. Each image can be decoded by tapping into its narrative and illustrational elements and read on a number of levels, both intuitive and analytical. Accident, humour, chance and serendipity all play a part. My concern has not just been to make an image of a place but rather make an image about a place, and that they reward a viewer that gives them time.

I feel a strong connection with urban surfaces: walls, signs, symbols and marks that denote a human presence. As I travel it becomes a passion to draw and paint, photograph, gather, scavenge, annotate and feel, to work without rules or restrictions. On the return to the studio the task is to distil the key elements and capture the essence. The images are not pre-planned in great detail yet emerge from drawings and doodles that establish their dynamic. I am fascinated with layering and colour and mark-making and surfaces are a high priority. The painting or print develops its own history through the process of constructing collaged layers and over painting and, even scraping back and eroding.

EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE;

NORTHAMPTON MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY.

RAILINGS GALLERY, LONDON.

BLACK SWAN GALLERY, FROME.

COURTYARD GALLERY, PETERBOROUGH.

GUILD GALLERY, BRISTOL.

HEFFERS GALLERY, CAMBRIDGE.

BEATEN TRACK, CHIPPENHAM. 

TAG GALLERY, KES, BATH

6 CHAPEL ROW, BATH

44AD BATH