New Works

Exhibition Notes

Ted grew up in northern England half way between Liverpool and Manchester. At school he was always drawing and scribbling and generally not paying attention. He won an Art Competition sponsored by the Daily Mail at the age of five and as a result of that he decided to become an artist at the grand age of six.

He says, "I lived near the railway so I liked to draw trains. There was something very impressive about steam engines because they were bigger than my Dad, they breathed fire and belched smoke, they were extremely fast, very smelly, made a great sound and they had lots of fascinating moving parts. Unlike today's trains which are no more than a buzz box on trolley wheels".

After finishing school Ted went to Art College and studied Graphic Design. Since he came to Ireland in the mid seventies he has been involved in supporting the arts. He started In Dublin magazine, a 'what's on' guide for the city and suburbs of Dublin and was a founder member of the Galway Arts Festival.

You may be familiar with his work as a poster artist without realising it! Using his own paintings and photographs, Ted has designed many of the highly popular Galway Arts Festival posters going back twenty five years.

Skies are a particular fascination for him. "I have travelled all over the world and I have come to realise that right here where we live in the west of Ireland we have one of the world's special places. It's where the weather directs the wind and the clouds in an all-action drama against a backdrop of sky, ocean and mountains. I am probably following in the footsteps of Paul Henry in this respect because in many of my paintings the sky is the major player."

The paintings and photographs on show here at Kennys encompass three distinctive and very different areas of Ted's work. Over the past twelve months he has been creating a mini series using reflections on water, perspective and limited colour. Some of the paintings have only two basic colours. Perspective, being a device for creating a three dimensional illusion on a two dimensional surface, is seldom taught these days and yet it is essential in our understanding of images. Some of these paintings have been used as a teaching aid for art in schools in conjunction with the Baboró Children's Festival.

Another aspect of Ted's work is the fantasy landscapes for which he is best known. They are larger than life motifs set in a local context and they are very often humorous or whimsical and sometimes simply an elaborate visual joke. They are extremely appealing to children as well as adults and bearing this in mind he is currently developing a series that include animals in different kinds of weather. The Prom at Salthill, being a real Galway institution, also features in the exhibition although it is more of a canine perspective than a human one. "I had to go back to being knee high to do these studies and I got some very strange looks from people in the process!"

Finally, there are several floral and garden images as well as serious landscapes that reflect his life long interest in plants and trees. "All my hero painters and photographers have been fascinated with florals as well as people and landscape. You only have to look at Hockney, Maplethorpe, O'Keeffe and Warhol to see that floral images can be stunning and people will always look for floral images when it comes to decorating the living space."

T.T. - Spring 2004