Duncan Wood

The exhibition will consist of small scale landscapes and still lifes worked on over the last ten years. Duncan Wood has been recognised as a subtle colourist of landscape, the figure and still life. He uses elements of figuration and abstraction together, to pay a particular homage to Nature.

 

In explanation of his ethos, the artist quotes a section from John Berger’s essay, ‘Steps Towards A Small Theory of The Visible’ (1996),  in which Berger wrote  …  ‘The modern illusion concerning painting (which post-modernism has done nothing to correct), is that the artist is a creator. Rather, he is a receiver.  What seems like creation is the act of giving form to what he has received.’

 

‘[I see myself] as part of a long lineage of thinkers, writers, artists, and scientists, that place ‘Nature’ as their first teacher, rather than ‘Humankind’, as we come from Nature and not the other way round … as ingenious as we often are.’ – Duncan Wood

 

Born in London in 1960,  he first trained at Gloucestershire College of Art and Sheffield Hallam University,  before undertaking a Master’s in Fine Art, at The City and Guilds of London Art School. From 2008, Wood spent six years as a faculty member and senior tutor at The Prince’s Drawing School, London (now The Royal Drawing School), before becoming Associate Lecturer of Fine Art (2011-16), at The Sheffield Institute of Arts, Sheffield Hallam University.  He works from Derbyshire and London.