Gary Thompson

Biography

I am a artist who is eternally fascinated by the human face. Many artists draw on the changing moods that are evoked by a wild landscape or seascape but for me they simply can’t compare with the changing moods and range of emotion that can pass over a human face in just the twinkling of an eye. It is those emotions I try to capture. As a child I had three great passions. Art, travel and knowledge. I wanted to explore great art, I wanted to explore the world and I wanted to explore and understand everything else. Now, many years later I can look back and assess how successful I was in these explorations. I have been lucky enough to visit around 70 countries. I have sailed most of the world's oceans and many of its seas, including a circumnavigation. As a child I made a list of all the exotic icons I wanted to visit, Table Mountain, Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Corcovada with the Statue of Christ the Redeemer, The Pyramids, The Great Barrier Reef. I managed to get to all of these plus many more. When I first read 'Ulysses' by Tennyson in my teens, the poem spoke to me like no other had up to that point. 'To follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought'. I thought at the time that such an endeavour would be the most worthwhile thing one could do in life. I still do. My passion for art, all art, but in particular paintings and sketches was always with me. I loved mythology and as a young boy loved the paintings portraying the gods and heros, so I loved the paintings of Nicolas Poussin. I was lucky enough to be able to get to the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery on a regular basis in my early teens and fell in love with the fine collection of PRB they have. Such colours and the light emitted from them illuminated the gallery. One by one I explored all the great masters and enjoyed them all. My particular favourite is John Singer Sargent. From intimate portraits to vast canvasses of his landscapes he is truly a master. I sold my first work when I was 14 but then as with so many others, life got in the way. I retired about 5 years ago after a successful career in engineering and returned to painting and sketching. I still sail my yacht when I'm not at the easel.