Bookhead

This is a screenprint our creative director recently acquired by local artist Ralph McGaul. It's called Bookhead.

Ralph McGaul was born in Macclesfield in 1983. He was educated at Kings School, Macclesfield and completed his art foundation at City College Brighton and Hove. He predominantly creates acrylic paintings on board, woodcuts, etchings and mosaics. http://ralphmcgaul.com

Update on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 12:29PM by The Agency

After we posted an item about local artist Ralph McGaul we asked him to expand on his work and obliged us with the following background information:

I’ve been working from my studio on Sunderland Street for around four years now.  A series of successful exhibitions last year gave me the confidence to finally commit to my artwork full time and my work has really benefited since.  Having the time to explore my style and develop my techniques more intensely has enabled me to achieve a greater satisfaction and belief in my work.

Typically naïve and primitive, my paintings are characterised by a raw energy and distinctive expressive style.  I mainly paint with acrylic on wooden boards.  This enables me to scratch and scrape into the surface, building up textures and exposing the multiple layers of paint.

In addition to my paintings, I also create woodcuts and etchings.  Relief printing especially appeals to me as the technique limits the colour palette, creating strong apposing blocks of colour that form powerful simplified images.

A wide and varied range of art influences my works.  Most recently I’ve been inspired by modern British artists such as Robert Colquhoun and Henry Moore. However, I am also drawn to the simplicity of medieval art, movements such as Art Brut and die Brücke and the expressive and decorative style of African art.

Ralph is exhibiting a solo show at the White Gallery, Bollington from Saturday May 7th –  21st May 2011, http://thewhitegallery.blogspot.com