Doug Eaton grew up in Coleford, Forest of Dean. After traditional grammar school education he went on to Stroud School of Art and then Cheltenham College of Art in the late sixties. He started to paint full time in 1977 but business soon took a more graphic stance and remained so until 2001. During that early period he exhibited at the Royal West of England, Cheltenham Group of Artists, Pastel Society, as part of a four man show at Hereford Museum and many local exhibitions. In 2001 he decided to paint more and take another look at what was around.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I think I’ve always been interested in what paint does and hopefully have applied it in as many different ways as my imagination will allow. I have always been aware of a “painterly look” over and above a clinical rendition of anything. I don’t mind the odd dribble here or there if only to remind the onlooker that it is paint at the end of the day.
Logically, I should therefore be entirely abstract, but instead I lean towards landscape type themes to hang paint on. Although I’ve done my fair share of traditional looking paintings I am currently trying to be more fundamental in my approach to try and produce a strong result from lines, shapes and colours which combined in some way evoke a landscape, usually based on the Forest of Dean, which I find to be quite a particular landscape.
I tend to be interested in extremes, soft against hard edge, dark against light, hot against cold etc. and try to marry them together. I try to use a minimum of information for the onlooker to suggest the subject – hopefully, then the seemingly random paint begins to make sense, or alternatively, but with equal importance, the seemingly “random” paint will remain as paint and be enjoyed for itself.
