Doncaster artist's evocative paintings go on show at city centre gallery
A collection of evocative paintings by a Doncaster born and bred artist have gone on show at a city art gallery.
The exhibition by Bryan Day is on at Doncaster Gallery, Library and Museum until the end of July.
Bryan is a Yorkshire based artist, whose beautiful pieces capture his favourite locations and memories in a semi abstract way.
He was brought up in Maltby and then Tickhill before moving to Carlisle in 1959 where he attended Carlisle Art College.
The display is a collection of his oils and watercolours spanning 70 years.
His original medium was oil on canvas or board and his style was to apply or scrape away layer upon layer of oil paint.
Colour would be dragged over colour and rough textures would emerge continually changing the character of the canvas until the final effect was reached.
During the 1990s, Bryan moved to Spain and the Mediterranean landscape he discovered introduced a lighter touch and a more direct approach than the changing, often accidental, interpretation of the oil paintings done in the past from inside his studio.
He found the medium of watercolour that would enable him to capture atmosphere and topography of a particular subject or location, especially the movement of water.
Bryan returned to Tickhill after 50 years away but still travelled in the UK painting Plein-Air around his beloved Cumbria and also Cornwall, capturing the hills, mountains and water that so inspires him.
Bryan believes a painting must have a life of its own, distinct from the 'real' world.
In a single painting he seeks to portray not a locality, but to sum up his consciousness of the whole of nature.
Despite the purest, aesthetic qualities that are growing to occupy him, his painting can never be divorced from the everyday lives of people and the land.
He has exhibited all over the UK including Border Galley in Carlisle, Abbott Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, Norham House in Cockermouth and The Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.
Today, due to the constraints forced by nature of the climate and his advancing years, Bryan's work has developed an abstract quality, concentrated specifically on watercolour from his studio. He continues to paint most days.