Gary Lovering
BoldBrush Recommends: Gary Lovering
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BoldBrush Recommends: Gary Lovering
Biography
Hello a couple people have kindly mentioned that my artists bio/artists statement is way too long ~ even career damaging ~ one reckoned that they should be no more than 4 lines! Why use 10 words of our beautiful language when we can with skilful thinking make do with one to show the flower of our heart? One of my sisters mentioned that I do tend to ramble when I finally do have to venture out of my shell~ surely though it will all be as one, a hundred years hence? She also called me a dullard t'other day ~ don't know why. So many sages so many opinions . So er anyway... at school many moons ago, my desire was to be an artist or a long distance lorry driver. Later I studied hard for 6 months at an art college and there learnt plenty to be getting along with. Art is long life is short it is said. I am very fond of Soul music so like the idea of one day making soulful art. I still have a dream of becoming a proper artist. This is because I was born a human being wishing to be useful and wanting to eventually somehow, do something of value with this, my life, which is passing in a flash. The stuff I am doing I am not sure really whether it is real art { just decoration? } ~ has any meaning or is at all moving in the way drama or music can be. I am painting and read a little art history everyday and also practise Yoga daily. 32 years old now in London ~ moved here the year the wall came tumbling down and the French were celebrating 2 centuries of non stop revolting. Well that is way more than 4 lines ~ would be no good on twitter~ that reminds me again that time is a passing. If you want to or have spare time feel free to read on below and forgive me if I in fact do go on a bit. Ta Ra and be of good Cheer!
Well , where was I oh yeah~ I was born in May 1966 in Bridgwater, Somerset in the South West of Britain. My father, who was from Trinidad, worked as an electrician. My mother was from Devon and devoted herself to sustaining our family. I went to Blake comprehensive school. I worked in a variety of jobs whilst still at school, at the weekends and in the holidays, including vegetable picking, on a battery hen farm and a mobile grocery van. I also earned money recycling scrap metal.
Thanks to my pottery and also the art teacher, I got a place at the Somerset College of Art and Technology, in Taunton, but could not afford to go as it turned out. A year later I went to Bridgwater College and passed an A'level in Art. To pay for my studies I worked for a window factory as a fabricator~ fitter~ repairman.
At 18 I moved to Bristol, the nearest city. During that time for seven weeks I hitched around Europe, through France, Switzerland, Spain and up to Luxembourg and then Germany. In particular I was impressed by the Swiss Alps, the kindness of strangers and the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres. On my return I trained in renovation; as a plasterers mate and painting/ decorating. A year later I visited Morocco where I first saw Arabesque designs and like so many artists before me was enormously inspired.
In the mid-80's I took an Art and Design Foundation course at Filton Technical College.
In 1989, I moved to London where I worked as a kitchen porter in a Japanese restaurant in Mayfair and then later as a cleaner/ ticket collector in Hornsea Road swimming baths. That placed closed and for the next four years or so I spent my time drawing and painting daily. I also spent quite some times doing voluntary work for The Anti-Apartheid Movement. At this time I was participating in Mail Art exhibitions~ sending original lino and wood cut prints around the world to exhibitions in Art Centres, Libraries and various other Community Centres.
In 1997 I spent nearly three months in Madrid where I was lucky enough to visit the Prado as well as many other art spaces. In London I have always visited Galleries and Museums regularly as long as they are free of charge. Another good thing about London~ many are free relying solely on vountary contributions and government grants provided by our lovely tax payers~ as we the people do own the works indirectly.
In 1998 I got a permanent job in property maintenance. At that point I had almost given up my lifelong dream of becoming an artist~ I did not think that people like me could be one~ yet I still carried on drawing and painting when I could find time.
After studying after work for three years at night school, I qualified as an electrician. I loved the work , it was a real buzz, but I was not keen on the stress that came with it~ though the money was not too bad. I turned my hand eventually to decorative painting; marbling and graining . This made me yearn to concentrate on my own work. By now I was practising yoga regularly to deal with stress and poor posture. I did karate two nights a week also for 13 years, in which discipline I got to own a Second Dan Black Belt.
My career in manual skills taught me patience and the value of diligence, as have my Yoga and Martial Arts studies. Both as someone who makes art and as a human being, I am drawn to repetition and detail. Always I strive to be meticulous and controlled. For me art is a constant exercise in playing with the interaction of line, shape, colour, tone, light and shade. In the future I hope to add texture to my works.
My chief inspiration is nature~"mistress of the masters". I am always trying to find a balance of light, shade and colours to reflect natural forms in their state of homeostasis. My approach is to observe nature, then abstract its forms in such a way as to make my design appear themselves as organic expressions.
As I have developed my studies of Eastern philosophy alongside my Yoga practice I find myself pondering what lies "Beyond" the binary of subject and object. As an artist I return to the notion of "the Divine Spark within". Aware that on some level, I am driven, almost to the point of obsession, I am still plagued with doubt and no little sorrow. I am however comforted by the knowledge that many of my fellow artists have experienced similar feelings. It is funny in a way, knowing this gives me a quiet confidence, if not in myself, then at least in my work. I read widely, daily on the subject of Art History and am fascinated by the lives and practises of the old Masters.
Over the course of my practice, I have worked in clay, limestone, various metal points, graphite, coloured pencil, ink, gouache, acrylic, pastel and lino/woodblock printing; but now I prefer to concentrate mainly in oils.
Financially I have always struggled to carve out a space for my practice. But a light bulb moment came when the ten year old daughter of a client in South Kensington said to me : "Gary , if you are an artist why are you painting those cupboards?" I had to laugh. I told her about the blooming bills. Yet afterwards I realised that my time was running out. As Schopenhauer points out~ "Every morning we are one day poorer." Father Time is now and always the Greatest Judge. If you got this far thank you kindly for taking the time and i hope you enjoy looking at my pictures. Cheers then.
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