Kevin Alexander

Kevin Alexander – Artist and Picture Framer

PopArt Mugshot © Kevin Alexander

I have always been interested in the creative process.  When at school, this was generally expressed through my involvement in music.  I was a violin player who particularly enjoyed orchestral activity.  I joined the secondary school’s orchestra whist still at primary school, and continued to play with the full orchestra, the chamber group and the town orchestra until my family moved to a different part of the country.  At my new school, I again joined the school and town orchestras playing violin and also took up orchestral percussion along the way.  The excitement of playing some of the great classical pieces as an ensemble is something I will always remember.

Throughout my school career, I also dabbled with pictures – photography in particular, but also in the graphic/design side of illustration.  This I continued during my time at University, producing sweatshirt, poster and ticket designs as well as a few original paintings. Moving into a Science Teaching career prevented me from spending as much time as I would have liked in the creative arena, but I was able to explore design and presentation when writing orginal teaching materials and software for use in school.  And in my shed, I regularly made wooden toys, ranging from personalised trains to table-skittle sets.

After 19 years teaching, I took the radical step of moving into the creative world properly.  I resigned from teaching and took on a picture-framing art gallery.  Whist the financial side of such a business is somewhat more variable than the regular income from teaching, its unpredictability and creativity more than makes up for it.  And I have now had more chance to develop my own creative side in a more artistic fashion.

I began by drawing a set of pen/ink line drawings of the Torbay area.  South Devon and Torbay in particular, is such a visually stimulating area that it hard not to be inspired at almost every turn on which ever path you tread.  I have also produced a set of drawings of nudes (male and female) for which I use a less detailed technique than the local scenes, but one that is fast and full of energy, resulting, I think, in the finished drawings having an emotional impact.

Being determined not to copy the styles and techniques of others and to develop something of my own style, I have been experimenting with other media.

Mountboard (which I use in my picture framing) is a wonderful medium for producing areas of flat colour, as is coloured film – both have been used to create original pieces. The use of mdf (yeh, really!) in some of my pieces is not perhaps an obvious choice, but being able to cut shapes out of a sheet of mdf and then painting it, has enabled me to create some different takes on familiar subjects. The pictures I have produced with these materials have a pop-art, graphic/design style and feel to them. Some of them are based on the organic/natural shape of the human body and of the local area.

My most recent work has explored the relationship between geometric shapes and the softer lines produced when they are put together. The glass constructions in this exhibition are a development of the ideas I explored initially with mountboard.

Torquay Panorama © Kevin Alexander

Click here for a two minute video about me that was one of a set made to give a flavour of the artists taking part in the Torbay area of Devon Open Studios 2008 (the video is hosted by MySpace).

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If you would like to comment on any of my work, or would like to commission a piece, please use the contact page.

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Reproduction of any artwork on this site is strictly prohibited.