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| William Dick I have always drawn ancient symbols from my own Scottish background and I feel the similarity of these symbols,circles, concentric circles, spirals etc, all common in Pictish/Celtic Art convey something of the magic religious function that Art once held in this culture. The works illustrated use such sources as, Russian Icons, Celtic and Pictish symbols, African and Aboriginal Art, Abyssinian Warrior shield, substance of land-geological form, rocks and lichen, peat, and moses, dust and sand, mud, local architecture and the effect of the weather. A wide variety of paints, wax and bitumen is employed to create surface textures of varying density and opacity. Each painting surface is built up in many layers, going through many transformations before completion. Increasingly the original image is submerged and a tension is created between surface and depth. Reseach into the Iconography and Iconology attached to pictorial representations where the Christian and pagan mythological figures used are almost beyond interpretation is involved. Past and present works includes themes and interests showing the assimilation of Christian and pagan rites and beliefs, in the “Christianised” images of standing stones the construction of churches upon prehistoric sites and adapation of pagan rituals. These paintings transcend the illustrative, using drawing as a symbolic way of making marks, thereby enabling me to encapture a sense of monument with certain ambiguities between the physical object and the implied atmospheric depths. Although the symbolism is evident from viewing at a distance, one must venture closer to appreciate the subtleties of colour and paint handling, where the eye is led over the surface by the diferent variations of paint and application. This reinforces one of the central themes in my work, the tension between the physical reality of the painted surface with the ability of the surface to imply imaginary space and objects. Because these paintings have a surface so intensely worked by various brushing and individual strokes, drawn lines, colour, paint texture, density and transparency the works offer themselves as physical objects. Education 1971-72 Glasgow School of Art 1972-76 Fine Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art – Dundee 1976-77 Post Graduate, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art-Dundee 1977-78 St. Martins School of Art – London 1978-Lecturer – Ealing School of Art, Harlow School of Art, Coventry Polytechnic, Southwark College, University of Nebraska, Creighton University, Kearney State College, Limerick School of Art, Westminster-Kingsway College London. Awards 2001 UNESCO-Aschberg Scholarship – Amman, Jordan Artist in Residence, Darat al-Funun Art Center – Amman, Jordan British Council Award Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award 1992 British Council Award – Russia 1991 Artist in Residence, Crawford Arts Centre – St. Andrews 1990 Salotarjan Intersymposium – Hungary British Council Award – Hungary 1989-90 Artist in Residence, Bemis Foundation, Omaha – USA 1989 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award 1977 Elizabeth T. Greenshields Scholarship 1976 Winsor and Newton Finalist 1975 George Duncan Travelling Scholarship 1974 First Prize Grampian Television Award One Person Exhibitions 2003 Sutton House – London 2002 Pilgrim Gallery – London 2001 St Mary’s Woolnoth Church – City of London The British Council – Amman, Jordan UNESCO Gallery, Amman – Jordan 1997 Garter Lane Arts Centre – Ireland 1996 Limerick City Gallery of Art – Ireland Monaghan Museum Gallery – Ireland The Economist – London Tricycle Gallery – London 1994 Meffan Gallery – Forfar 1991 Crawford Arts Centre – St.Andrews Midland Arts Centre – Birmingham 1990 New Gallery, Bemis Foundation – Omaha, USA Zodiac Gallery – Omaha, USA Lanchester Gallery – Coventry Nogradi Torteneti Museum – Hungary Pier Gallery – Stormness, Orkney Art Space Gallery – Aberdeen 1989 Seagate Gallery – Dundee Collective Gallery – Edinburgh Mark Four Gallery – Lincoln, USA 1988 University of Kent, Canterbury University of Exeter Southampton Arts Centre The Crypt Gallery – London Crescent Arts Workshop – Scarborough 1987 Artworks Space – London Eagle Works Gallery – Wolverhampton Group Shows 2002 Woolff Gallery – London 2001 Dean clough Galleries – Halifax 2000 Camden Open, Camden Lock – London Reflections, Southside Arts – Southhampton 1998 Whitechapel Open Studios – London Resonant Colours, Coningsby Gallery – London Arts at Vitalis – London 1997 Three Painters, Kunsthaus Schaller – Stuttgart, Germany Weihnachtsausstellungen, Kunsthaus Schaller-Stuttgart,Germany 1994 Cuprum VI Biennale, Centrum Miedziorytu – Poland International Exhibition, Tarii Crisurilor Museum – Romania Small Graphics Forms, Ujpest Gallery – Hungary International Print Triennial – Netherlands 1993 Kiev-East European – St.Petersburg, Russia International Graphic Biennial – Maasstricht, Netherlands Bradford Open Print Exhibition – Cartwright Hall – Bradford 1992 Corporate Locations, First Data Resources – Omaha, USA Art For Sale – London National Exhibition of Prints, Ujpest Gallery – Hungary 1991 Male Formy Grafiki – Lodz, Poland Collectors Eye, Gruzelier Modern and Contemporary Ar -London Summer Exhibition, New Gallery – Omaha, USA Works on Paper, Gruzelier Modern and Contemporary Art- London Gruzelier Contemporary Art, Fruit Market Gallery – Edinburgh 1990 Intersymposium Exhibition – Hungary 1989 Bemis Foundation, New Gallery – Omaha, USA International Contemporary Art – Stuttgart, West Germany Varna International Print Biennial – Bulgaria Collections Aberdeen Art Gallery Barclays Bank Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art – Dundee The Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow The Scottish Arts Council The Bemis Foundation – Omaha, USA Nogradi Torteneti Museum – Salgotarjon, Hungary Moscow Union of Artists, Moscow, Russia Foundation for Hungarian Graphic Arts, Hungary Darat al-Funun Gallery, Amman, Jordan Private Collections worldwide | |||||
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