BETWEEN THE WORLDS.
Beyond the bounds of time.
THE WORLD OF RICHARD GILLAN
Richard was born in Nairobi in 1929, later living in Walsall where
he painted from the age of 10. He
trained in Psychiatry at The Maudsley and practised as a Psychiatrist
in places which included The North Wales Hospital.
At the age of 40 he studied art at The Slade and this stimulated
him to work with different techniques, especially silk screen printing.
When he moved to Conwy in 1987 he printed at The Conwy Print Workshop
and set up Gyffin Studio Pottery.
Richard has explored many worlds and some of his paintings focus
on the realms of Nature where CARROT FLOWERS seed, ground parrots grub,
and the pike lurks. In Caribbean
circles he was known as THE PIKE;
this predator was Richard’s guide to the underwater world below
and the world of air above where dragon flies hover.
The threatened TIGER hunted for its bones for aphrodisiacs shows that humans are successful predators, his woodcut GIVE US YOUR BONES says it all – Richard always passionately defended the worlds of nature. EVERYONE NEEDS PREDATORS shows two pikes lying in waiting for their victims.
THE COSMESIS OF DAGGY shows the camel being stripped by locusts and turned into a poodle.
Richard’s friendly pictures include BELL FLOWERS, FOXGLOVES intertwining with figs, almost bare rooted trees reaching for the sky. The animal world is represented by CELTIC FRIESIANS, CHAROLLAIS SHEEP. He was worried about how his other pictures would be received and said; ‘my dark pictures are political, contentious and conceptual’.
The dark pictures explore the Unconscious and maze of the mind (HENGE) and the shadows playing there (LYRE TREE).
MATAMATA
exemplifies his dark side, where the native American Indian joyously discovers
a turtle which waits for victims, motionless. Here it is a victim itself
to the delight of the American Indian who is both reverential, excited
and happy to have found food.
Other faces of Richard’s Spirit World peer out in portraits of
CELTIC GODDESS, AGRO IN THE SPIRIT HOUSE.
But time ran out for Richard when cancer was diagnosed early in
2000. He painted portraits
of characters from the Mabinogian like Lady Arianrhod.
His
last work CARBON: the Origin
of life balances his illness and death.
This glimpse into Richard’s soul shows that all his between the
world journeys have been magical and his spirit lives on in his art.