Welcome to my Funky, Retro, Pop Arty, Gallery.
Not just an on-line Art Gallery, also a philosophical comment on life, hence the name, The Fine Art of Life. It also includes my small contribution to the Art of Song writing. I hope you will spare me a few minutes of your life while I explain the ethos of the site.
The Fine Art of life refers to your life as well as mine and the use of movement and colour is a reminder that nothing in life is permanent except change and life is not black and white plus the sensual creative aspect of life. This page, a movement of Art with everything a symbol, that's me dancing on the columns, will allow everyone to see some of my work and understand who and what I am about as an PhotoArtist, even if they go no further. All my work stems from a photograph of life and much of my PhotoArt is an abstract created from reality.
First of all I would like to thank ALL the people who have inspired me in my life, and helped bring this site to life.
If you have a problem reading the coloured text use a mouse to see it easily.
My photographic philosophy and PhotoArt revolves around a concept which came to me in Costa Rica in 2001 on a holiday which re-ignited my interest in producing the fine art images of life. Each art image has this element, I feel, within it and is designed to produce a 21st Century Modern Art image which includes, in some way, the philosophy of……..
Life, Death and the Divine.
The basic philosophy underlying all my work.
Divine in this case being beauty, the indefinable essence which is so individual and unique, as is all of life, and Fine Art being the art that surrounds our lives and is our very souls, if we could allow it into our minds. In many ways my images are a microcosm on life and capture many things that I believe many people never notice particularly those that wish to impose their way of life on others. I call my work Nouveaux-Modern Art.
My influences are as a child of the fifties and sixties, working in the unisex fashion industry, the company I worked for, dressing many pop stars of the day. The colours of fashion maybe a driving inspiration for Andy Warhol and the Pop art revolution. The influence of the music of the sixties, B B King, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Blues, The Beatles, Stones, Moody Blues, Beach boys, etc. with it's simplicity and complexity, I even worked as a DJ in the Twisted Wheel All Night club in Manchester, in the days of the Steam Packet, Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, and a string of Tamla Motown artists. The art of Picasso, Dali, David Bailey.
Philosophically bigtime influence, John Lennon, When asked in 1971 whether songs like " Give peace a chance" and "Power to the people" were propaganda songs, he answered, "Sure. So was 'All You Need Is Love'. I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change." Not forgetting, " Imagine".
Photography Page:
My images capture in many cases something which only existed at a point in the millennium of time, once and once only, that unique moment, as is everything, a suspension of time. Freezing time in images, with an ability, denied to past cultures.
A raw moment in nature's never ending cycle. A natural instant of life.
It reminds me of Lewis Carol, looking at life through a mirror and being able to see that nothing is singular, all is individual in creation. So sad that some individuals kill in pursuit of a single mental philosophical concept of how life ought to be, when all around them, there but to see, is total uniqueness. Creation says that variety is the very essence of life itself. Through the lens of reality there is nothing that we can physically see and touch that is not unique and different, varity the spice of life a divine statement. The understanding of reality.
It is the culmination of a lifetime's interest in the finer details of life and photography. I started my photography career way back at school and spent many happy hours in the darkroom. My life, being dictated by family influences, as does happen to most of us, meant that I only pursued it on odd occasions in my following years. However each time I received high praise from friends and family. Well not so much from family. Then came the digital revolution and I embraced this, amazed by the ability to fire away without worrying about the cost.
I still retained my desire for the perfect image due to the need for care with film cameras. So I continue to look for the perfection before pressing the release button. Having said that I am beginning to take on the habits of the new form which allows one to make mistakes and instantly correct or see the beauty or potential of the mistake. Talking of mistakes this brings me to the technical aspects of my photos. Let me expand on that a little.
With a digital cameras one can play extensively with images, both with exposure and focus, in fact I had a Sony video camera in Costa Rica that allowed one to see precisely the image one was achieving, (live imaging) while playing around with these two particular aspects. This started me on the road to combining the technology to create more artistic images. I then started working on the premise of creating the equivalent of a painter's eye and producing images that had the quality of what is considered formalised art, within them.
So within the photo galleries you will see a vast range of images, some the very classical style of photo covering many different subject areas and other images which are based more on composition, shape, form, colour and texture, demanding thought to understand them.
Many of the images are not technically brilliant in terms of photographical terms and this is done deliberately in many cases to help, at times, to create the final image Others it was just a moment where technical brilliance was not possible. This technique has become a part of my photo manipulation plus the use of the digital palettes provided by modern technology. In all my PhotoArtworks there is a photo, reality combined with the abstract. I call these new digital art works, Nouveaux-Modern Art.
Which brings me to another aspect of my art.
Sensual page:
Inspiring a possible new school of art, Nouveaux-Modern Art. has been the concept which evolved from my sensual art. Abstract realities of divine sensuality which one could hang on your living room wall. An abstract form, with a reality that is almost forbidden in our socities today. In history this was an integrel part of the philosophies of life.
The Intimacy of Love is the Fine Art of Pornography.
The philosophy here is the voyeurism of humans, their never ending love affair with sex or in some cases hatred of it. I personally, am deeply offended by the word pornography and how many modern societies condemn images, literature, and even discussion of consensual, (notice the spelling) sex.
Our ancestors glorified it, the Eygptians, the Greeks and when did the word 'pornography' appear in the time of humanity? When the Victorians uncovered Pompei and understood the implications of what they found. So the Romans too. Ancient Indian temples, oriental philosphies including the Arabs, and Persians. Whatever direction one searches, ancient cultures throughout time, all embracing, when given their freedom from oppression, the divine Art of Love in all its guises. Forget not the Arabian Nights.and Kama Sutra.
Here in the UK 'voyeurism' has become a crime which makes criminals of the whole of humanity. It ought to have been the word 'stalker' not 'voyeur'. What is illegal about an observer, the audience? The only crime of observation is those who sit by a doing nothing to protect the freedom of thought and individual rights.
Hence another reason why I also say, that this site is based on a philosophy of life. A political statement questioning the linguistic usage and the negative view of something which is the most beautiful privilege given to us by creation and yet there is so much hypocrisy surrounding it.
How is it we live a society which uses the greatest gift given to us by creation as a means of control and ban images of the beauty of the human body and it's interplay with other bodies, whilst violence and destruction of this divine work of nature is glorified.
All artists by nature must be voyeurs to truly ply their trade which one can equally apply to all human beings.
The pornography of life is the hypocrisy of love of violence as opposed to the love of love.My sensual art brings together the art of the digital eye and modern technology, to find a certain niche in the world of sensual images that has, as far as I am aware, never been expressed before, using the combinations I have created.
The Nouveaux-Modern Art of the Sensual PhotoArtist.
I call it all Raw Art for it is using only the simplest techniques, each moment as nature created it, then playing mainly just with colour and shape to achieve the desired image, from an original photo. Other than my classic style photos, I use colours which I feel adds the emotion of the moment. I try in most of my images to have multi-dimensional concepts within them, which at times will mean spending a little time working them out. Images that you can hang in your living room without feeling any embarrassment, all created by Love with love.
Which brings me to my song writing.
Music Page:
Truly Raw Music both in its imagery and creation.
An interesting story of life of two generations coming together to produce something rather different. A story which I will leave until the Music Page.
If you like the instrumental you are hearing and the read, plus the slide show, come hear the words and see all the images.
How to enter the Gallery:
As I explained at the beginning, this is an on-line Art Gallery so in order to support the artist/s we ask you to pay to enter, not a lot, almost a donation. There will also be a further charge to enter the Sensual Page, just a little, for security reasons and ............!
This will entitle you to download as many files as you like, for a period of a year or more. You may make as many hard copies as you like for your own personal use and we trust you not to pass files onto other people. Should you wish to use anything commercially you will need to contact us separately, that liceince is expressly forbidden.