Gary Ford M.A. E.V.A.

All his life Gary has held an interest in art and on leaving school he completed a foundation course at Newport College of Art & Design. He intended to take a ‘gap year’, return to Newport and study for his degree. The ‘gap year’ stretched to twenty seven during which time he worked as an opencast miner, steelworker, taxi driver and postman. Due to ill health, he retired in 1999 and attended UWIC from 2000 to 2004 , gaining a B.A. 2:1 honours and then completed his M.A. Fine Art degree in 2006.
Gary has worked ‘on display’ at the Millennium Stadium and the Open University Offices in Cardiff, and exhibited at Howard Gardens Gallery, Jacob’s Market, Llanover Hall Cardiff, and at The Art Shop and Court Cupboard Gallery in Abergavenny.

His paintings provide an insight into the visual world hidden within him. They are the result of serious works battling to emerge. They possess a texture, the density of which perhaps reminds the viewer of oil paintings- the colour particles affording a textile effect.
The technique is a cautious, patient and slow growing one. They are improvisations evolving from a glimpse of memory, or a vague dream picture.

Definition of form is determined by colour parameters, along with juxtapositioning and demarcation of colours. Each colour harbours knowledge of its emotional expression, bearing soul, conveying the theme of the picture, and determining ‘what it is’.

The final image arrives during the working process – he says his intention is to ‘disobey the laws of optics’. Gary’s paintings move with the ebb and flow of colours, interweaving, interchanging, and never remaining static.