New Printed Canvases

“At school, I took no delight in the arts. Nor did I show talent for art in general, let alone painting!

I’m from a military family. My father, uncles and brother were soldiers; career soldiers. It is no surprise that the path of a proud, professional soldier would be my own destiny.

After fifteen years in the British Army, I sustained a severe injury whilst on active service. My military career fell apart. After sessions of surgery, a course of rehabilitation began at Headley Court. That was when deep depression set in.

Army doctors tried various therapies, but the darkness did not lift.

One day, a therapist, thinking ‘outside the box’, bought me an ALDI painting kit costing £4.99. That humble box of cheap pigments, brushes and paper, kick-started this creative journey.

To sweep pigment across canvas felt so natural; this new way to express myself, simply wonderful. It really was a huge deal to me at the time. It was a revelation, and to this day, I’m bemused over how it came to be.

I then shut myself away from the world for eight years. Set up a tiny studio in the hallway of my house, and painted, and painted, and painted.

Through those years, my grasp and appreciation of other artists took root. I absorbed countless books and ‘how to’ videos on YouTube. The wonder of painting and art filled my life.

Even so, I concealed my work. Kept it from the gaze of those not close to me. Eventually, my doctor, of his own volition, arranged an introduction to Sally, the curator of the gallery at Danby Moors Centre. Sally offered a solo exhibition of those paintings accumulated over eight years of brush and canvas solitude.

Success! The show was a total sell-out and, what’s more, the local papers picked-up on the story and BBC Look North did an interview. My solitary artist life was at an end. I joined with others inspired by the Muse.

I truly believe painting saved me, in body, mind, and spirit. At the outset, all I sought was sound mental health, but art has suffused all aspects of my being. Turner, that great landscape painter and innovator, is now my inspiration, and I’m enriched.

To speak of it feels astonishing: although I’m less able bodied, I find more joy and contentment as an artist, than I knew in my former life.”

Bdr AR Wright