Brian West
ARTIST PROFILE
As the son of an amateur artist I became familiar from an early age with the strange smell of linseed oil and turpentine. I attended classes at Mansfield School of Art from the age of 10 and the charcoaled fingers and fleeting glimpses into the life-classrooms were indelible experiences and stimulated my interest in the opposite of figurative stillness. Following which, my involvement in both studying figurative movement and sport combined, for if not playing football or cricket every daylight hour - I was sketching some athletic action or other - playing air-guitar didn’t become an in vogue pastime until later.
Imagery & the Colour of Movement
I now always paint in oils and acrylics, using brush and knife in a range of textures from a thin brushed wash through to a heavy knifed impasto. My application has developed over 35 years or so by mostly being more concerned with the loose application of positive colours rather than the clinical line and detailed illustrative precision. It has proved a steep learning curve attempting to impact an emotion in this way.
It may be that thinking positively can be self-inspiring enough to pursue a personal achievement or lasting contentment. The pliability and colour-fusion of painting in oils is theraputic and challenging, the same process is easier applied but the end product harder to attain when using fast-drying acrylics - for unlike oils - it just refuses to be pushed around. It demands a kind of strata-painting in order to build up the same desired interference of tone and mark or ghosting effect - something I aspire to in trying to capture the emotion and colour of movement in its millisecond prime - a visually impossible surreal glimpse of a connection to a parallel universe of stillness in action... a bit obscure I know but I think thats the nearest I can get to explaining a modus operandi.
From SOTHEBY’S, New Bond St.,LONDON SALE CATALOGUE JULY 1998
“Brian West began painting in oils at an early age later attending Mansfield College of Art. In his professional career West has specialised in sporting imagery, seeking to portray the drama, colour and spectacle of the sporting world. He has exhibited widely with great success and has been commissioned by many famous names from the world of sport, including Gary Lineker OBE, Peter Shilton MBE.OBE, Gordon Strachan OBE, Sir Alex Ferguson CBE, Sir Jack Haywood, David Gower OBE and many others; as well as painting commissions for sporting institutions such as The Football Association, The Sports Council, Wembley Stadium plc, The British Olympic Sailing Team and various football, cricket and rugby clubs.
Specialising in collating a number of subjects and ideas fused into a personal montage to tell a unique and powerful visual story, his paintings are owned by many famous names, companies and institutions. An impressionistic type style - developed over thirty years - that bounces between realism and partial abstraction with sort of fauvist-like, though softer, use of primary colours. Fleeting moments captured sometimes with an effect so suited to the catching of athletic action. This can be seen to good effect through a range of subject matter and themes including music icons and figurative/abstract imagery, such as in his action-study portraiture collections and famous player action montages. Michael Lawrence Galleries
BOOKS
Sleeve Cover picture on ‘Canto del Cigno - Marco Van Basten’ ... pub.2004
Sleeve Cover picture on ‘ISIS Bob Dylan Anthology’ ...pub by Helter Skelter
Comment contained within ‘The Real Mackay’….by Dave Mackay & Martin Knight
Picture of Villa debut goal commissioned painting... ’Walking Tall, My Story’ ...by Peter Crouch
VHS VIDEO
‘The Gordon Strachan Story...Good Times, Hard Times’....his favourite goal painting commission comment & appearance on video
’Brian began painting at junior school where teachers recognised his talent and encouraged him to attend art college. Following an apprenticeship in engineering, Brian launched his own production engineering company, filing a number of development patents and later became a successful entrepreneur - managing businesses involved in the design and manufacture of mining machinery, acrylic fabrications, textiles equipment, sportswear and screenprinting development - still painting in his spare time. In 1990 he decided to become a full-time artist. Since then his work has been commissioned and collected by businesses and sports personalities. His unique ability to ’capture the moment’ makes his work particularly relevant to the sponsor yet remaining appealing to the casual viewer. Such is its appeal you can find Brians work in boardrooms, reception areas, offices and the private houses of business leaders, as collectors or as a gift from colleagues’.
Richard Johnson - Company Director and lifelong friend
Check out other work by Brian West on www.brianwestart.com
Recent Exhibitions and Private Collections Include:-
Sony Music Entertainment Europe, London.
Mansfield Museum Gallery, Nottinghamshire (Solo Exhibition).
Gary Lineker O.B.E.
British Society of Painters Exhibition, Ilkley, Yorks 1990.
Patchings Farm Art Centre, East Mids Artist of the Year Exhibition.
Art `92, London Contemporary Fair, Islington.
Sir Alex Ferguson C.B.E., Manchester United Football Club.
Osborne Studio Gallery, Belgravia, London.
Roy Wegerle & Cobi Jones, ex Coventry City and USA.
Renishaw Hall, Museum and Galleries (Solo Exhibition).
Lord Whitelaw, Portrait (Courtesy Lady Cunliffe-Lister, Burton Agnes Hall).
The Royal Yachting Association ’Sail4Gold’ Ball, The Hilton, Park Lane, London
The Coach-House Gallery, Guernsey, C.I.(Solo Exhibition).
Sir Jack Hayward (Molineux Stadium)
Sotheby’s, New Bond Street, London.
The Nevill Gallery, Canterbury.