Gallery 3 Colin Moss 1914-2005 Artist & Teacher.

Colin Moss was described as a great teacher and journalist, but most of all a great artist, as Gallery one has shown with his new exhibition –‘Colin Moss 1914-2005: Artist and teacher.’ In this it shows his honest depictions of ordinary everyday life in his colourful, emotive and richly toned variety of art works. As you explore through his artwork, it shows great detail and characteristic in how he interpreted the things he drew.

Born in 1914 in Ipswich, he showed incredible skill, as he grew older, he studied art at Plymouth, and soon got a scholarship to the royal art college. Later on in life he did murals, and camouflage work during the war, following on to becoming a senior lecturer at the Ipswich School of art, where he taught many talented artists such as Maggi Hambling, famous for her North Sea paintings.

As you enter, it shows a beautiful array of his artwork. The gallery presents a large variety of paintings, sketches, pastel work, and even some mixed media, that he produced in his lifetime. Starting with ‘the last supper’ a slightly darker piece, as it’s use of harsh colours give it good contrast, however, the rich tones highlight Moss’s religious side. The gallery also shows a classic, ‘the dustbin’ which even one of his famous students, Maggi, recommended. As she said “He became the subject he painted, whether it’s people drinking in a bar, drilling a drill or even a dustbin, there’s a very lively picture of a dustbin, which I think everyone should come see.”

The picture does give a much more realistic approach; still a very rich toned painting, but more subtle colours. Anyway, as you work your way along this spectacular selection, you get a feeling of Moss’s great talent and characteristic. It even shows his phase of studying nudity, where he shocked the public with his incredible pastel drawing of ‘the girl washing her hair.’ In which, it pictured nudity in an ‘everyday’ scene, instead of most artists choice of the ‘classic’ nudity, in which the model is posed.

Moss could easily capture every day life, just like in ‘the man with a drill’ (also mentioned by Maggi Hambling) and ‘the bar’ and ‘the man with his shovel’ all of which where thick, detailed oil paintings; just like the titles, the image was simple, yet constructive, detailed pieces of art. All of his pictures were full of effective, forceful brush strokes, and a slightly ‘edgy’ abstract feel to them. His watercolour work, had bright colours and including his ink and pastel drawings, the over all effect provided an abstract look, being based upon the line of realistic and unrealistic. His piece the ‘soldiers playing cards’ showed that he could work in a very different approach of how he observed things, with it’s use of collage to add the unusual difference between the painting and the cards. As he was such an inventive artist, the gallery shows how he could capture those moments in oil, watercolour, prints and drawing, the work on display reveals a different approach to Moss, and the diversity of him as an artist, of how he interpreted his observations of life. With the gallery providing such a wide variety of artwork, it creates a different atmosphere for each one, making them unique and different, yet giving a interesting visual experience.