The art of shapes and forms

Above: One of Alan's works of art

FOR 70-year-old St Albans artist Alan Simmons, life after retirement is not about slowing down but about having more time to do the things he loves. For the first time in his career he has been able to put together a solo exhibition of his current work.

The exhibition held at the Direct Art Gallery in Luton during April allowed Alan to present more than 70 original colour works on paper, canvas and board. His collection included oil pastels, oil paint and collage. Alan also enlisted the help of the public by encouraging them to bring in newspaper and magazine cuttings for inclusion in a new piece of artwork, which is being auctioned this month for the charity Keech Cottage Children’s Hospice in Luton.

For Alan this particular exhibition gave him the opportunity to exploit a new direction in his work. Primarily he is a sculptor and spent many many years working with marble, limestone, wood, imitation bronze and resin castings but over the past ten years he has dedicated his time to experimenting with different forms of painting. ‘With painting I am able to keep up with my ideas. As I am working the ideas flow and I am able to use them, but with sculpting each piece took so long to complete I had more ideas than I had time to implement,’ says Alan.

Alan has always been passionate about art generally having obtained a degree in sculpture at Leicester College of Art in 1958 followed by a post-graduate teaching degree at Brighton College of Art in 1959. In 1981 he obtained an MA in art history. His specialist areas are 20th century art, 19th century French painting and Renaissance art of Central Italy and Rome.

His career has taken him far and wide, he taught in Devon between 1960 and 1962, at Hornsey College of Art for another two years and between 1965 and 1967 he worked in Germany and lived in Greece. On returning to England he became head of art at a secondary school in Essex. In 1971 he began teaching art to degree students; initially in sculpture at Balls Park and Wall Hall Colleges of Education and then in drawing and painting at Hatfield Polytechnic and the University of Hertfordshire.

Article taken from June issue of Hertfordshire Life