Neil Smalley
I describe myself as a landscape painter in oils. I thought carefully about that description- you may think it sounds pretentious- (it’s difficult to talk about art without sounding pretentious) but I do paint, mainly landscapes, solely in oils- I’m simply stating the facts, Guv. I’m also avoiding the word ‘artist’, not just because it saves folk the bother of asking ‘Paint or piss?’ I often get drawn into semantics about ‘painter and decorator’ and ‘artist’, and my bottom line is- painters do pictures, whereas decorators do staircases, and while I have known decorators who were artists, I’ve also known artists who weren’t fit to be decorators.What do I paint? Mostly wherries, windmills, wildlife and water. Sorry for the alliteration but that’s how it comes out. But I try to paint more than that. I try to paint the layers in between- the damp, humidity, warmth, wind, chill. They all affect what you see, so they should be what you get. See what I mean about sounding pretentious? I’m a bit like the pub pianist who, not satisfied with the white notes and the black notes or even the cracks, wants to play the beer stains and the cigarette burns.
I must apologise for not using the third person singular, and not banging on about communing with nature like some painters do in this sort of blurb (well they are usually artists, in fact) but nature is where I got my asthma and my arthritis ,and the inspiration comes from a bank manager with jack-boot rash and monocle sores. I can’t offer a review of my previous work because the Eclectic Dreary Pest studiously ignored me for years. I’ve been burgled twice, if that’s any recommendation? The thieves were only after paintings both times!
I nearly forgot the biography bit- born Sheffield, 1941 -still got the Utility Mark on me bum. Moved to Norfolk to paint, 1977. Married Valerie, ’80. John born,’82, Miriam-’85. That’s all you need, isn’t it? Love Painting, don’t like work. God bless you, your Honour.