JEFF WILLMORE

Jeff Willmore’s painting is both expressive and graphic. He works primarily in two ways: observing and painting directly from nature with small field sketches, and using imagery invented, or resourced from photographs and media to create larger studio paintings. He works in series that may be very different in subject matter but consistent in style. He prefers visual narratives that convey a shattered or mediated aspect, but still hold the traditional ideal of the rugged or romantic. These are pictures about pictures, or more precisely, a personal interest in picture making that instils craft and communicates larger truths. His practice navigates a snarl of modern, representational new-world influences from both fine art and the applied arts. The figurative imagery is a reaction to a history of landscape pictures and an interest in non-representational painting. A loose vocabulary of pattern and marking creates many of the backgrounds with the overall aspect often reaching toward abstraction. The result is imagery that erodes the importance of a horizon line and revisits the figure as an element in inventive picture-making.

Jeff Willmore is a London artist with a long history within the region. His early career was influenced by the regional scene at the height of its power, and the notion that important things can be accomplished here. His formal training is pedestrian, but sturdy; Willmore studied graphic design and fine art at Fanshawe College, graduating in 1980 and has been working professionally ever since.