STRONG AND RISING (The Pool is the Past)

Brian Shields was born on the North Yorkshire coast and educated at Wimbledon School of Art. He lives and works in North Eden, Cumbria. A multimedia artist his practise encompasses three main bodies of work : Portraiture, the use of fictional narratives to explore themes of folklore, myth and romanticism and thirdly works which explore the human condition with a focus on systems/methods of control.

Selcted exhibitions include : National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award (3 x finalist), The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Oriel Mostyn, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Birmingham Literature Festival(Poetry and Film), New Light Art Prize, C-Art Cumbrian Artist of the Year (first prize), Upfront Gallery Cumbrian Artist of the Year (first prize), John Clare in Space Oxford, Hunting Group Art Prize…….

Recently in the work a compulsion to break up the flat picture plane has come to the foer – either through epoxy, wire and collaged elements to form a relief or as in the painting exhibited with the utilization of part mirrored glass.

STRONG AND RISING (The Pool is the Past) is a portrait of my partner Claire. It is a marker of a particularly emotionally and mentally fraught period in her life. However much more importantly it is a celebration of her resilience and strength. A social worker of many years standing the impact of impossible case loads and unachievable managerial expectations were having a serious effect on her mental wellbeing. During this stressful period she also suffered the bereavement of her beloved father.

In the midst of grief, fragile but brave she made the decision to retrain as a counsellor and is now fulfilled, working for an addiction centre in Cumbria

Possibly the viewer may recognise some aspect of their life and experiences in the work?, they may empathize or even identify. The mirror (pool) reflects the viewer – they become not merely a watcher but a witness.