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TOMAS WATSON

‘RECONSTRUCTED FRAGMENTS’

Paintings and Drawings

 

 

19 JUNE – 20 JULY 2007

 

 

Jill George Gallery is delighted to announce Tomas Watson’s latest solo exhibition for June - July 2007.  This show will present his latest paintings which continue his exploration of the subtle line between figuration and abstraction and are heavily influenced by his travels in India last year.

 

His desire to capture the visual sensation of exploring the Indian subcontinent has encouraged his use of collage in this latest body of work.  Although he has experimented with collage at various times over the past two decades, this is the first time he has incorporated photographs into collaged images.  The resulting works, with their abrupt pictorial fractures and severed planes, capture the intense and teeming chaos of the Indian urban environment, whose streets crowd the senses with myriad sights, smells and sounds.  Each one holds within it aspects of many encounters and many moments with their resulting thoughts and responses.

 

His paintings resonate with the wonder of the human form, and these new works continue his fascination with representing the body.  Sensual and intimate, yet bold and bright, with a consummate mastery of form and line, they reveal an artist who has matured into an exceptional and accomplished colourist.

 

A formal training with a heavy emphasis on life-drawing and anatomical studies has shaped both Watson’s work and his love of old masters.  The fluid lines and contrasting tones of his earlier painting evoked comparisons with a wide range of figurative antecedents from Pontormo and Guercino to Whistler and Seurat.  His treatment of this figurative tradition is now loosening up, and vibrant traces of a more modern idiom are appearing. These new works echo the loud brightness of West Coast painters like Diebenkorn and Thiebaud, with dreamlike glimpses of the human form eerily reminiscent of Bacon’s enclosed nudes.

 

Whilst the human body remains important, this work reflects the artist’s growing fascination with new approaches to picture making. For last year’s exhibition of prints and drawings, Watson taught himself the necessary skills to produce superb prints. His exploration of technique and composition continues, in parallel with his experiments in figuration and abstraction.

 


 

 

Notes for Editors

 

  • Tomas Watson was born in Sussex in 1971 and studied at Huddersfield Technical College (1989-90) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1990-94), with a course in Anatomy for Artists at University College, London (1993-94). He currently lives and works in Greece, and has exhibited with Jill George Gallery since 1998. This will be his seventh solo exhibition at the gallery.
  • Watson’s work has been exhibited in Britain, Greece, Canada and the USA, and is represented in numerous international public and private collections.  He has taken part in the BP National Portrait Competition in 1997 and again in 1998 when he was awarded First Prize.  In 2001 the National Portrait Gallery commissioned him to paint author John Fowles.
  • The Private View of ‘Tomas Watson: Reconstructed Fragments’ will be at Jill George Gallery, Lexington Street, Soho on Monday 18 June from 6-8.30pm.
  • Jill George Gallery began by exhibiting the work of recent graduates and new artists and now shows selected painting and sculpture from a roster of international artists. 

 

If you require any further information or images please contact Jill George Gallery on 020 7439 7319 or email press@jillgeorgegallery.co.uk  

 

Jill George Gallery is open weekdays 10am - 6pm, Saturdays 11am - 5pm,  Thursdays until 8pm.     

 

www.jillgeorgegallery.co.uk  


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Jill George Gallery

Jill George Gallery

38 Lexington Street

Soho

London W1F 0LL

 

Tel 0207 439 7319

Email jill@jillgeorgegallery.co.uk

Website   www.jillgeorgegallery.co.uk