Clifford Wilton

Clifford Wilton, a Londoner by birth, has been a painter since the mid-sixties.

 

His career as an art director, graphic designer and teacher of design at the San Francisco Art Institute took precedence over painting for many years. Now living in Ashland, Cliff is a full-time painter whose body of work in the past nine years is an exploration of the human figure and the limitless expanse of abstract forms.

 

Cliff’s paintings have been exhibited in the Aspen Art Museum and in one man shows in Aspen and Denver, in Southern Oregon University, The Rogue Gallery and the University of Oregon in Eugene. In Seattle, Cliff has had shows in the Friesen Gallery and in Hanson Howard Gallery in Ashland. His work is included in many private collections.    

 

In Ashland, Clifford is now represented by the Bohemia Gallery. 

 

 

 

For many years, my figurative and other representational work was primarily concerned with the qualities of the paint itself, with color, composition and texture rather than consciously imbuing the subjects with individual qualities. There were no recognizable actions, and even with several figures, no one was doing anything.. I was not interested in narrative. My figurative paintings were more about paint than people. 

 

My recent work pushes this idea into abstract forms. Abstract painting,, though a greater challenge enhances my freedom to explore; to experiment with color and texture unhampered by the demands and restrictions of representational forms. This not only broadens my own visual vocabulary but allows the viewer to bring her own interpretations and sensibilities to the paintings.