Christopher Stone and Peter Morris

Christopher Stone and Peter Morris will be taking part in their first show together, Late August at The Forge Gallery,Walberton, a date to put in your diaries. Peter Morris is an experienced artist, having been painting since the late 1940s. His subject matter is diverse: Greek Island cafe scenes with fishermen relaxing and talking after a hard day, workmen moving a piano, figures in a string quartet, or warm Dordogne landscapes, all in a solid style which emphasises the structure of the design on the canvas. He keeps a sketch book constantly, deriving his subjects from events he records in its pages. Christopher, whose beautifully crafted stone sculptures and metal-and-clay maquettes compliment and contrast with Peter's figurations, is well known for saying "My style is - I don't have a style; sure I follow a pattern, or a theme, but I prefer to cut directly into the stone or work with my hands in the clay, I make very few drawings, or sketches, I am afraid to lose the spontaneity of the whole thing, In fact many of the Maquettes I do make are made in oven baked clay in order to stop me from doing more, Its an expensive way to work, but it controls me, and this way the Maquettes become a finished piece in their own right." For connoisseurs of the act of making works of art, the contrast between Peter's logical method and Christopher's unbounded spontaneity in tacking the depiction of the human figure makes,apart from the pleasure of looking at the works themselves, a fascinating reason for visiting this exhibition.

Peters statement
After over half a century of painting, my style has gone from representational in the art-school '40s, purely non-figurative in the '50s, when I lived in Montreal and was influenced by the American School of Pollock, De Kooning and Johns, to figuration again when I returned to the British Pop Art scene in the '60s. One thing all these style-changes have had in common is that I have attempted to treat the rectangular canvas as the base of a formal design. Structure has been the most important element, and ever since my return to the UK, my paintings, whatever the subject matter, have essentially been abstract designs. I have always kept a sketch book, and quick notes of things seen in passing have been the source of much of my work ever since. But the transfer of the drawing to the canvas is the point of departure from the original stimulus. As the painting develops, new directions suggest themselves, and the finished painting may be some distance from the event which triggered it. To quote the young girl who said it: "How do I know what to think till I hear what I'm saying?"; or Picasso: "A painting is the sum of destructions". The figures in my paintings are primarily participants in the abstract design.


Peters CV
Peter Morris, who was born in 1931, started painting at a very early age, entering Cardiff School of Art at the age of 15. After a conventional academic training he qualified as an art teacher, and later painted and exhibited in local galleries in south London. Leaving for Canada in 1956 he was immediately influenced by French Canadian and American abstract expressionism and by the French painters Soulage and de Stael. During this time he exhibited in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and in some private galleries. The world of non-figurative art excluded any direct reference to the observed world which continually found its way into his sketch books, however, and the return to the figurative scene in 1960s London meant a welcome re-connection to the primary source of ideas in his pages of drawings. But the structural disciplines of non-figuration remained as a primary influence, and now his landscapes and figure paintings reflect his preoccupation with formal design.



Christophers CV
Christopher Stone was born in London in 1955. After obtaining his City and Guilds certificate in Cabinet Making he began two years full time work experience with artist designer Ralph Hampton in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England. He learned Antique restoration at the De Seidner galleries in London, England. He participated as an Artist/Designer in the World’s Trade Fair in Seville, Spain in 1992 for the both the British and Spanish pavilions. His interests led him to make prolonged visits to Luxor, Assuan, and Cairo to study Egyptology and also to the Czech Republic to study Eastern European art.
He has exhibited at Furniture Design exhibitions in Le Mans, France, and John Bell & Croyden in London. He has also shown in Seville, Spain and Salisbury, Wiltshire, Ibiza, Spain, where he currently lives and works, Mannheim, Germany and Amsterdam, Holland. Mr. Stone is represented in Ireland by the Gormleys Fine Art.

Christophers, Statement
"To be born, a sculpture needs love and dedication right to the end..... direct or free carving is for me the closest one can get to original concept.... cutting direct into the stone has no alternatives..... I try to create a feeling, a wish, or a dream - not a sequence of similar items, not a style, but a complete random exercise in creativity..... my style is that I don't have a style. Look at the piece, love it or hate it, but don’t try to understand it... I create because I must create. My task as a carver is to make the things I see in my mind.....there is no difference between my original idea and the 3D work in stone. I do not carve what I see, I carve what I have in my heart, the beauties of appearance must not smother the beauties of thought...all my pieces are unique, more because I cannot do the same thing twice with the same energy of the
original."