the pleasure, passion,power and panache of painting

9
©Colin Halliday
His first public show was at the Fresh Art Group at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London
(1992) followed by participation in a group show at Dulwich Picture Gallery having been selected
by Tom Phillips RA and a Group show at Quantum Contemporary Art, London, (both exhibitions in
1997).
By 1999 Colin was painting landscapes as a preferred subject and shown the resulting work in a solo
shows, first at Grey College in Durham College (near Sunderland) and then at the Knapp Gallery,
Regents College, London. These were followed exhibitions from 2000 onwards by a host of shows
through to 2012, mounted mainly in London in private high street Galleries.
At this stage in his painting life he already began to question the purposes of cutting edge art and
what it had set out to achieve in its dogma. And he also began to consider the whole concept of
contemporary leanings towards anti-Art in general. Art against art, one that gives pleasure. Art
against Art that displayed beauty.
Art against Art that displayed any sort of skill or talent. That late 20th century ‘cutting edge’ art
that seemed determined to re-educate art students to accept banality, insincerity, inauthenticity and
plagiarism as art styles in themselves.
“what’s so bad about creating Art
that is beautiful?”
As an art process to admire and employ as the main artistic aim. Painting, as an artistic choice for
expression, was labelled ‘old and useless’ and the artists that did choose painting, as a preferred
medium, would find themselves derided or at best ignored by art institutions and academics. Colin,
made a conscious decision to go against the grain of 20th century contemporary art theory and wanted
to create paintings that were brimming with beauty, emotion and sensory pleasure.