!["BLIND MAN'S BUFF " by Paul Hamlyn](../../../../Images/Artists/Paintings/Hamlyn/PH0909_med.jpg)
Living and working in Suffolk and London, Paul Hamlyn's paintings draw on aspects of the British landscape, into which he weaves a dreamlike, alien narrative.
The title of the show, Rendlesham Forest, refers to the site of a world-famous UFO sighting in 1980 that allegedly included the landing of a large oval spacecraft floating on beams of light. The alien craft was spotted on successive nights, and statements were provided by a relatively large number of credible witnesses.
Rendlesham Forest, with its strange history, provides a perfect imaginative landscape in which the real world is mitigated by the painter's inner preoccupations; where elements of the commonplace mix with fear and memory. Ordinary events such as a barbeque, a picnic, or a walk in the woods with a dog are transformed, sometimes humorously, into scenes that conceal a sinister undercurrent or a disturbing question.
Hamlyn begins with sketches made in and around Rendlesham Forest and the Suffolk coast, and completes the paintings in his London studio. The finished works evoke the intensity and beauty of the physical world, and at the same time inspire feelings of profound uncertainty and disquiet.
Paul Hamlyn was born in Stockport in 1953 and studied Art at St Martin's (1981- 84) and Goldsmith's MA (1986-87). He has shown regularly in the UK and his portrait illustrations have appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout Europe and America. This will be his first solo exhibition with Art Space Gallery.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition with 11 full colour plates and text by Andrew Child. |