Paul Bloomer: From the Black Country to the Shetlands

About

This exhibition has been selected from a body of work produced over a period of twenty years. My formative years were spent in the industrial Black Country of my birth, and by my late teens I found myself in a spiritually desolate place. Drawing offered a way out of the factories and pubs and I drew with fever pitch intensity workers, drinkers, fighters and dancers. Strong form dominated my tight compositions but colour evaded me. On the horizon behind the factories a light gently began to shine. At first I was surprised at this light, but as I looked closer and embraced its brightness, I found myself reunited with nature. Colour returned to my life and for a while my pictures turned into painterly songs of joy.