Catalogue
Portscapes
Intimate and familial painted images that fuse elements of portraiture with elements of landscape composition.
Action And Adventure
Hand-drawn by Oscar Romp in 1985 -1986, on copperplate with an etching needle (no use of aquatint), and bitten in Ferric Chloride acid. Hand printed by Oscar Romp on white BFK Rives, or Velan Arches etching paper (350gsm approx.). About 12 prints were pulled from this plate, after which I had the plate steel-faced in anticipation of a larger Ltd edition, which did not ever happen. But I still have the plate (-;
The composition was built with reference to a drawings from 2 or 3 sketchbooks of 1983-85 recording daily life, events, people and places whilst I was a BA student at Bretton Hall College of Arts, West Yorkshire (nr Wakefield). The site of a Capability Brown stately home and landscaped park, this site is now redeveloped as a ‘Health Spa’ after a short spell as a Police College (so I hear). These drawings, sometimes imagined, sometimes observed were of everyday things, places and happenings, but are put together in a way that is out of context, - like in a dream, where waking experience is ‘all mixed up’ and is consequently transformed in a way that often appears to take on a symbolic or a spiritual value.
From a young age, and particularly at this stage, I was inspired and influenced by the works of Stanley Spencer who used strong, dynamic composition. He put together commonplace experiences and images in a fresh, surprising way, which seems to free himself and the viewer from boring routine, and to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
