Tony Scrivener English, b. 1944

‘With still life, there is a paradox in the way the ubiquitous becomes unique, and the individual becomes universal, and this is what makes it such an absorbing genre. Still life paintings can be intimate or monumental: often anthropomorphic, they also refer to human presence by its absence. The negative spaces are as important as the positive and their relationship to one another – distance apart, weight, and colour – are necessarily considered.

‘My home and studio are full of objects – domestic ceramics, dried fruit, flowers or vegetables, and found objects – anything where shape, colour or pattern appeal to me. How they are positioned or placed in relationship to one another stimulate my imagination and they become the subject of my still life paintings: frequently with motifs borrowed from one object for another. They begin life as drawings, either on card or paper or, more immediately, on canvas directly from observation in my studio.  

‘Each time different issues need resolving or line, form and colour generate their own mood or feeling. Ultimately it is the energy and tensions of composition that define each painting.’

Born in London in 1944, Tony has painted professionally since moving to Dorset in 1970. He studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and went on to gain a first class BA (Hons) degree through the Open University in 1999.  Tony has exhibited extensively in the southeast and London – regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Show. His paintings are widely collected by corporate and private collectors, in the UK, Europe and the USA.