Adam Drouet
Adam Drouet
Artist’s Statement January 2010
Adam's paintings for the group show ‘A Strange Country’ address the fragility of modern life and the constant anxieties which we all feel. Whether it is a thought which we knowingly confront, or sub-consciously harbour, we all understand – and fear – that everything in our lives can change or vanish in an instant. We strive to create happy, comfortable, stable lives and like to believe that we can control our circumstances and destinies. But fate is capricious and not to be tamed. The things which we hold dearest – relationships, family, health, home, identity, security – may not be as permanent and unassailable as we hope them to be.
Adam's recent work was inspired by Paul Gauguin’s search for a state of earthly paradise, and dealt with how close we are to both finding and losing this goal in the modern world. These new works move the theme on: the closer we come to reaching paradise, to achieving happiness (and surely we never have had it so good, so easy), the more we stand to lose. We face the dilemma that, as our apparent security and comfort grow, so can our personal fears.
In this way seemingly mundane scenes become filled with a sense of dread and foreboding - a family car journey; the wait for an appointment; a caller at the door; a children’s game; an encounter; – all begin to presage some life-changing catastrophe. An apparently calm, drab and monotonous palette gives glimpses of the sickly, lurid underpainting which lurks beneath everything, as a metaphor for our anxiety. Most of the time we can forget it’s there; but it is there, all of the time, if we choose to look.
Other influences include Michael Andrews, Eric Fischl, Sam Dargan, and John Singer-Sargent.
Enjoy each day to the full!
CV
Sept 2002 – Jun 2009: Tertiary Education
Part-Time BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree
University College Falmouth
Wood Lane, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 4RH
1987 – 2001: Further Education
Part-time art courses at a number of institutions, especially:
Kingsway College, Holmes Road, Kentish Town, London N5
which I attended 1992 - 2001
Shows and Exhibitions
June 2009: Degree Show, University College Falmouth,
Wood Lane, Falmouth
August 2007: Summer Show, Devoran Art Society, Devoran, Nr Truro, Cornwall
April 2006: Easter Group Show, Trelowarren Estate Studios, Nr Helston, Cornwall
April 2001: Start Gallery, Fulham Palace Road, London SW6 – group show of six artists’ work
2002 – 2004: Painted with Portscatho Group of Artists (ref. ‘Portscatho - Portrait of a Cornish Artist Colony’ by Chris Insoll, Halsgrove Press, published 2006)
July 1991: Super 8 Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand – group show
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