Alastair Riley

Alastair 'n' David

About the Event

Working almost exclusively as a silk-screen printmaker, Alastair will exhibit works produced over the last 10 months. This means his usual emphasis on Alderney and South-Western landscape subjects. Other works may feature wildlife and trees.

Event Type

Exhibition

Disciplines

Printmaking

Telephone

01823 663699

Email

landaandcufc@btinternet.com

Website

www.alastair-riley.co.uk

Opening Times

Fri 7th	Sat 8th	Sun 9th	Mon 10th	Tue 11th	Wed 12th	Thu 13th	Fri 14th	Sat 15th	Sun 16th
closed	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm	11am - 6pm

Further Info

For the last six years or so birdwatcher – but not 'twitcher' – and very loyal Colchester United supporter Alastair Riley has worked 3-4 days a week as an artist, dovetailing this with his part time role as an education officer with the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The latter takes him to schools and other organisations as well as to Trust reserves all over the varied county of Somerset – trips which sometimes offer up subject matter for an artist.

The son of an accomplished amateur clothes designer, Alastair studied Art at Culham College of Education, Abingdon where he eventually concentrated on the medium of printmaking, tutored by silk screen printmaker Michael Moulder. After time spent at blockprints and paper stencil monoprints Alastair eventually settled on silk screen as his favoured medium. Over subsequent years spent as a teacher and headteacher Alastair still tried to find the time to experiment with what the medium offered him. He now frequently blends inks and alters colours in mid-process to the extent that every finished print is ostensibly an 'original'. As such, his 'print runs' are very short indeed, usually 3-5 examples. For a more detailed explanation of the methodology please go to : www.alastair-riley.co.uk

Alastair aims for peace and open spaces in his subject matter and so invariably landscapes predominate. These tend to be inspired by Somerset and Cornwall but many are also courtesy of France and his beloved Alderney. Within many of these subjects, the complexity of roof patterns, the colours of dawn and dusk and even an occasional 3D element are what keep Alastair continually challenged. In 2005 he extended his range of subjects to include some of the creatures that he encounters when out and about – this being a particularly tricky type of subject for the medium given Alastair's desire to find a unique way to compose each animal, insect or bird.

It therefore follows that originality is very important to Alastair. Whilst he spends plenty of time critically studying the work of silk screen protagonists such as Warhol & Caulfield along with the drawing and painting of Samuel Palmer, JMW Turner, David Hockney and Eric Ravilious, Alastair also spends equivalent time searching for ways to compose his subjects uniquely. Ravilious is a particularly important influence here and this may be no coincidence because he lived in Alastair's own home village of Castle Hedingham in Essex until disappearance over Iceland working as a war artist in 1942. Only one book about Ravilious' work was ever written and it took Alastair five years to track down a second hand copy. It is now a very precious possession!

Over the last few years there seems to have been a steady increase in interest in Alastair’s work – something that constantly surprises him. He has exhibited both individually and jointly during Somerset Artweeks '02; '04 & '06 as well as staging one man exhibitions around the county. He was also asked to exhibit at the Meeting House Gallery in Ilminster as well as in Basildon, Essex & at 'thefranceshowlive07' in Leicester. A permanent, but ever changing display of his work hangs in the Culm Valley Inn at Culmstock, Devon and at the offices of Taunton Deane Borough Council in Taunton. He is a member of both the Tiverton Art Society – where he has exhibited lots of times – and the Alderney Art Society. Work was also selected for the Atkinson Gallery Summer Show, Street in 2004.

Alastair often gives talks about his work as an artist and writer [about little-known French wine] and is always happy to respond to queries about what he does. It remains a source of enormous surprise to him that people buy his work and this gives him the encouragement to continue making pictures. Indeed, the very reasonably priced blank greetings cards made from images of his work [please refer to www.alastair-riley.co.uk ] are now very popular as are the professionally out-sourced calendars which are available in two formats. Visits to his studio are welcome and he may be found there most Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays – Saturdays too if he cannot reach a Colchester match! People who send hima letter or e-mail can be assured of a reply!

Nynehead: March 2007:

"Thankyou for reading this website entry. It is the first time that I have plucked up the courage to exhibit under the '10 Parishes Festival' banner and I hope to meet many new and past visitors to the 'a & d' show at Nynehead Court in September 2007".

Alastair.

Venue Information

Address

Nynehead Court Residential Home

Nynehead

Wellington

Somerset

TA21 0BN

For Venue Information

01823 662481

Directions

Head for Nynehead which is a village in 3 parts! Venue is adjacent to Church and School, parking at Nynehead Court.

Parish

Milverton

Disabled Access

Good

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