Awaiting the tide, Staithes sold	Barns at East Compton- sold	Compatibility sold

Horse Fair Dealings sold	Importance of a Kettle	Parade, Great Dorset Steam Fair*

Bryan paints atmospheric watercolours, often nostalgic in character. Regular subjects include farm animals, children, boats and landscapes, particularly of the West Country, Scotland and France. Paintings are often commissioned and there are many regular collectors of Bryan's work.

It was with some surprise that in his thirties, while living in the Channel Islands, Bryan began to paint the scene from his window. He subsequently attended painting courses and studied the work and advice of many painters. His inspiration comes particularly from the watercolours of Homer, Singer Sargent, Hopper, Wyeth, Yeats and Becker.

Since settling in Shaftesbury, Bryan has participated in many group shows and has had regular one-man shows including Shaftesbury, Christchurch, Warminster, Wimborne and twice at Salisbury Playhouse. He has recently had watercolours hung by the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour at the Mall Galleries, London. (*including Parade, Great Dorset Steam Fair)and by the Royal Watercolour Society at the Bankside Gallery inext to Tate Modern.

The Herd's Farewell sold	Tor Evening sold	Will it float?
Farmer Gulliford sold	Bryan	Work in progress

 

 

Exhibitions planned for 2008 - see www.bryanpickardwatercolours.co.uk

1. Throughout most of the year there is a good selection of paintings displayed in the gallery at home, Box House. Please telephone 01747 855243or email bryanpickard@tiscali.co.uk to arrange a visit.

2. One-man exhibition at SHAFTESBURY ARTS CENTRE, Bell Street for one week only, from Monday, 3 November to Saturday 8 November 2008. Open daily between 10.30 am and 4.30pm.

 

---

The following article was published over four pages, including five images, in DORSET MAGAZINE [www.dorsetmagazine.co.uk] in 2008, written by Stephen Swann, a watercolour expert who has been a reserve for Antiques Roadshow and on the programme twice:

 

BRYAN PICKARD : Freeing the Mind

 

Bryan Pickard came late to painting having spent some 25 years of his working life as an accountant. Talking to him in his ultra-modern home in Shaftesbury I begin by asking him how he made the change from being a number cruncher to a creative artist. 'I don't really know,' he replies. 'It came about gradually. Somehow I went from using one side of my brain to the other but why that happened I couldn't really tell you. All I know is that today I am obsessed by painting, watercolour painting that is, and I cannot imagine life without it.'

Bryan was born in Leeds in 1936. His father was a mechanical engineer. Sadly, his mother died when he was only 11 years old. He went to a Quaker boarding school in Saffron Walden, Essex. 'I am not a practicing Quaker but I regard that period as very influential. I have tried to conduct my life on the principles I learned from school,' he tells me.

 

Farmer Gulliford (sold)	Estuary Evening (sold)

 

From school he went to the top accountancy firm of Price Waterhouse in London. 'I was never your typical accountant. When I got married we lived on a houseboat. Later I worked in Brazil and then went on to manage the financial affairs of Herm in the Channel Islands. From there I went to Guernsey, where for 15 years I was involved in the hotel industry.'

I ask him if he can remember the first time he tried to paint a picture. 'Yes,' he replies firmly. 'One of my children had a sort of oil-painting-by-numbers set for Christmas and somehow I found myself having a go. That was in 1975. I can't really say why, but I enrolled in art classes and was encouraged by some really good teachers. Up until then I was blind to painting.'

So what finally pushed him to give up accountancy? 'My first marriage failed and when my wife and I split up I bought a picture-framing franchise in Poole High Street. I had it for eight years, living above the shop. It was a high-volume business but I also sold my own work through the shop. I bought a cottage in Shaftesbury as a sort of bolt hole. I met Kate and we were married in 1991. We bought a house and did B&B together. I was painting all this time and selling my work in Shaftesbury and to the guests who stayed with us. We managed to get planning permission to build this house on part of the land occupied by our B&B and so we sold, and in effect moved next door.'

Old Sheds at Porlock	The Road to St Ives (sold)

 

Looking at the fine array of Bryan Pickard's work that is everywhere around us waiting to be hung in a forthcoming show, it is obvious that his style has evolved over time. 'I don't have a method that is set in stone,' he explains. 'I let the subject and my response to it shape my technique. I really taught myself how to paint in watercolours. I ignore everything the books say. In a way, every picture is a new beginning. Having said that though, I find that I am moving towards a much looser style.'

He certainly is. Take one of his most recent paintings. It shows a local farmer moving his herd of cows down a lane. The paint has been applied in full-blooded washes in wonderfully confident films of flowing colour. The painting is an exhilarating exercise in what watercolour can be made to do in the hands of someone who is not afraid to really go for it. It speaks of a keen delight in things seen yet it is very far from the slavish replication of the forms of the physical world. Detail and tightness have been left behind and instead what we have is a kind of visual poetry.

I ask Bryan how he went about making a painting like this. 'I sketch on the spot, or most likely these days, I take a photograph. I am drawn to subjects like farming, cattle markets and horse fairs. It seems that many of these traditional farming activities are in decline and so I somehow feel compelled to paint them. The farmer I painted with his cows was just about to sell his herd for economic reasons. I found myself recording a scene that is increasingly common these days.'

What about influences? 'I don't think I have been influenced a great deal by any single watercolourist. I admire the work of artists like Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, all of whom happen to be American, and just recently I have discovered the work of the English artist Harry Becker. He painted the farming life of Suffolk as horses were being replaced by tractors. He died in 1928.'

Bryan's work has found its way into shows put on by both the top national societies for watercolours, the RI at the Mall Galleries and the Royal Watercolour Society at Bankside, London. To have work hung in these venues is proof if any were needed that this most difficult medium is one in which Bryan is totally at home.

The Gulliford Herd (sold)

 

I conclude by asking this quiet, modest and talented man what painting means to him on a personal level. It is a question that he has trouble answering, or, more accurately, has trouble finding the right words in which to couch his answer. 'Painting helped me through a difficult time in my personal life. Even today it remains profoundly important to me psychologically. It is essential,' he tells me. Then, with the merest hint of a smile, he adds, 'It's my Prozac.' To see more of Bryan's work visit www.pick-art.org.uk/