GRAEME WILLSON: An introduction

An independent artist based in the Yorkshire town of Ilkley, just north of Leeds-Bradford. He exhibited nationally, in London and abroad and has also a considerable reputation as on artist working in public places: his works for York Minster and the Leeds Corn Exchange are well known to a wide public. Over the last 15 years he developed a practice in stained glass, working in partnership with the Martin Johnson Workshop in York. Examples of his work in watercolour have recently been acquired by Leeds City Art Galleries for their permanent collection.

The Child is Father to the Man

Acrylic and oil on panel

22" X 48"

2006

£1000.
Drowning

Acrylic and oil on panel

22" X 48"

2007

£1000.

A versatile artist whose work covers a broad range of themes, but is principally concerned with the human face and figure. Occasionally references to architecture, landscape and natural forms are included. Geometry can also make itself felt in his painting either as a subtle background presence, or as part of some architectural underpinning. In addition, the very processes and methods of painting itself can form a large part of the subject, bringing the work to the verge of abstraction, as in the piece below.

Fire in the Belly

Acrylic and oil on canvas

36"x 52"

2007

£3000.

His concerns focus on human relationships, particularly between the sexes, and what might be termed the 'ambience' of a particular subject and its expression through form and colour. Graeme's work maintained a fine balance between the traditional and the contemporary. References to classical myth or Renaissance imagery are subtly interwoven and reworked in relation to experimental and innovatory working methods. At the heart of his work is a fascination with the human condition and the look of things and ideas which 'project' that condition.