Oxfordshire Artweeks

After a few years of exhibiting in Provence I finally got the opportunity to do it in England.

Mo Sollis invited me to be part of a rather special band of artists exhibiting during Oxfordshire Artweeks at (334) Art in the Barn at St Audries Cottage, Church Lane, Dry Sandford, Abingdon on 16,17 and 20-25 May, for the Oxon Artweeks. For this I brought some of my more apposite paintings to hear the opinions of the good and the great of my home town.Unfortunately it was only be a small sample of my work.

I enjoyed meeting all the Barnee's friends and customers and thank them all for taking the time to regard my paintings. It was delightful to meet so many old friends and family too, I'm sorry the weather wasn't a bit warmer.

In particular I thank those new collectors of my paintings I still have absolutey no idea which style,composition,colours, size or subjects you prefer; so I shall continue with my broad appraoch.

I am now back in Provence with a sketchbook full of ideas and enough sunshine to get on with it!

Thank you Mo for inviting me, may you continue to make and sell wonderful sculptures in your beautiful location.

Chris's Paintings Coming Home

2015, Dry Sandford

Chris Walker

It all started here (born 1950) in Oxford (a Harwell Fission Poduct), at Chilton (both both as Berkshire and Oxfordshire) and Abingdon and Sunningwell.I have been working as a nuclear engineer throughout Europe.

A profession that demanded much of me; Is it big enough? Strong enough? Stable? Safe? Functional? Economical? Aesthetic? But it never demanded the colour.

Now I have retired from this to concentrate full time on my painting and proceed to revel in the rules and freedoms of colour. As my final posting was in Provence, an artists’s dream, home and work place of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso Matisse, Derain, … I felt obliged to maximise the benefits of this location where I remain to paint and enjoy the life-style, andI have established myself as the enthusiastic youngster of the local painting scene. I thought I was rootless (my last exhibition was even titled Déraciné) until approached by Mo Sollis to join her at (334) Art in the Barn (http://www.artweeks.org/festival/2015/art-barn) at St Audries Cottage, Church Lane, Dry Sandford, Abingdon from 16-25 May, for the Oxon Artweeks. Not 2 miles from his family home in Sunningwell, this reawakened my local feelings, with images distorted by time and a furtive imagination.

This visit represents my first exposure in Britain since early in 1972 as a taster for more planned Anglicization.

My studio for the last for 8 years has been at les Capelles, St. Paul lez Durance, Provence, for all the classic reasons and I have actively exhibited my paintings in France from 2013. Of course I am keen to keep my Provencal connections active with exhibitions in the summer at Château Saint Jean lez Durance, 04100 Manosque as part of Art & Vin 2015 «Art in Situ» organised by Fédération des Vignerons Indépendants du Var and at Galerie Plastik'Art 04100 Manosque from 21-27 Aug.

Influences are hard to list and categorize, but nothing passes by without some assessment, admiration and some desire to emulate. I paint in oil or acrylic on various subjects and a multitude of free styles, from life and from imagination. I like paintings which allude to a story or an enigma. Colour, pattern, and humour are important in my abstract paintings, landscapes and fanciful compositions. My tenet is that although painting requires concentration and hard work it is also fun and my aim is to transmit this joy with composition, colour, hidden depth and playfulness. Look for Oxfordshire, Bavaria and Provence in my paintings, but also look for allusion, joy and hidden meaning.