Birchall Reality

Roger Birchall is a 77-year-old artist, living in Darlington. After leaving art school in 1970 Roger had a varied working life mainly in education but he also earned a living for ten years as a graphic designer. He moved here in 2000 and was immediately impressed by the variety of landscapes and seascapes that you can visit so easily when living in the town. His response was to start painting again in a concentrated way.

He regards his art education as vital to the way he works now but there are other influences.

He says, ‘My ability to draw came from both sides of my family and oil paints were the commonest medium at that time but the way I combine these skills definitely depends on what I learned at art school’.

As well as landscapes, the other part of his show features portraits of friends and family some of which date back to the 1980s. Roger works from photographs which help him achieve likenesses but he is also very concerned to create an image that adds to the experience of seeing the person, even if you don’t know them.

This exhibition is full of very approachable paintings that often contain small experiences we all can enjoy; light seen through leaves, a distant horizon or an old brick wall. Roger says he tries to do the ‘seeing’ for us and then attempts to duplicate that experience through the medium of paint.