Alan Gouk
'Hoary Footman'

Oil on canvas
201 x 261.5 cm

Alan Gouk was born in Belfast in 1939. He studied architecture at Glasgow School of Art 1957-59 and psychology and philosophy at Edinburgh University 1961-64. His first group show was John Moores 6 1967, in which he was a prizewinner. He taught sculpture at St. Martins School of Art 1970-89 since when he has painted in London and Scotland. His most recent one-person shows were at Flowers East, London 1997 and 2001.

"My concerns are the shaping and modelling of space, or the pictorial sculpting of space, and a natural luminosity of tone-colour. Otherwise I have no conscious aims, no intentions, but move from immediate impulse to immediate impulse with ‘utter directness' in all directions at once. I try only to bring together disparate areas of experience, the more improbable the better. This year it has been the influence of the planet Venus in October/November. The sonorities of Roberto Gerhard's astrological works, Libra, Gemini and Leo. Moths and their English nomenclature – 'Hoary Footman' is the name of a moth – so much more earthy and suggestive than butterflies, and more beautiful."