Born Liverpool 1942.

Studied drawing and painting at Harrow School of Art 1965-1968.

Abstract artists Ben Nicholson and Victor Passmore made a deep impression on Colin and influenced his early work. With the strong discipline of life-drawing his paintings became more figurative and exposure to the work of Frances Bacon and Alberto Giacometti led to a series of running figures in motion, and later, cyclists in an environment of advertising graphics.

In time his painting returned to a more abstract nature inspired by the work of Cy Twombly and the American Abstract Expressionist movement.  Colin became fascinated with the effects of time and weather on decaying walls and advertising billboards. 

His recent paintings reflect architectural influences from wartime bunkers on the beaches of the Atlantic coast of south-west France. Over time these structures are gradually being claimed by the sea and now evoke images of ancient Egyptian temples rising from the sand. These bunkers have distinct structural lines created by the shuttering when they were first constructed by the occupying German army in the Second World War and it is these lines that form the strong architectural element in Colin’s paintings. There is a unique quality of light in this famous wine growing region and his work captures this light and acts as a visual journal recording the restless erosion and destruction by the elements of graffiti images that adorn the surfaces of these bunkers. These observations are carried forward into the most recent series of paintings.

Colin’s work is constantly evolving as he explores unknown territories.

FOOTNOTE

On leaving Art School Colin worked for The Robert Savage Gallery in South Kensington, London.  There he learnt the arts of gilding, frame making and restoration, later running his own restoration workshop in Suffolk.  Colin retired from his restoration business in 2016 allowing him greater time for painting.