Patrick Woodroffe - British fantasy artist Video

Woodroffe was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1940, the son of an electrical engineer.

In 1964 he graduated in French and German at the University of Leeds, before going on to exhibit his first showing of pen and ink drawings, Conflict, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. However he did not become a full time artist until 1972, the year in which he gave an exhibit of his paintings, etchings and related works at the Covent Garden Gallery in London.


Patrick Woodroffe's cover art for the Roger Zelazny novel, Nine Princes in Amber.
This file is a candidate for speedy deletion. .His career took off when he was asked to produce approximately 90 book cover paintings between 1973 and 1976 for Corgi, including Peter Valentine Timlett's The Seedbearers (1975) and Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber (1974). During this early period he was also commissioned to provide art for record album cover sleeves, including heavy metal band Judas Priest's album Sad Wings of Destiny (1976). This was followed by an exhibition of book-jacket and record-sleeve paintings in 1976, which appeared at Mel Calman's Workshop Gallery in London. That year the children's book Micky's New Home was published with illustrations by Woodroffe. In 1978 he mounted an exhibition of more than two hundred works at the historic Piece Hall in Halifax.

In 1979, Woodroffe then went on to create illustrations for The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony: The Birth and Death of a World (later shortened to 'The Pentateuch'), a joint project the symphonic rock musician Dave Greenslade. The Pentateuch purports to be the first five chapters of an alien Book of Genesis. The album consisted of two-discs by Greenslade, and a 47-page book of Woodroffe's illustrations. The record sold over 50,000 copies between 1979 and 1984. The illustrations were shown at the World Science Fiction Convention, at Brighton's Metropole Hotel in 1979. In 1976, his illustrated book The Adventures of Tinker the Hole Eating Duck was published by Dragon's World.

In 1983 he created an album sleeve for the rock band Pallas, as well as related logos for merchandise. The same year saw Woodroffe creating art (including representations of a Snark - a subject traditionally taboo for an artist to do) for composer Mike Batt's 1984 musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark. The 1980s also saw another Patrick Woodroffeexhibition, Catching the Myth, at Folkestone's Metropole Arts Centre (1986), which featured 122 pieces selected from twenty years of work. In 1989 he prepared for conceptual art used in the film The NeverEnding Story II.

Through the 1990s and 2000s he continued to work on numerous other projects including a sculpture at Gruyeres Castle in Switzerland, based on his earlier picture The Vicious Circle (1979). The project is designed to show war as a closed circle of absurd, self-destructive futility. He continues to hold exhibitions, his latest work including a recent exhibition at Sainte Barbe, in Switzerland.

He resides with his family in Cornwall, where he has lived since 1964.

[edit] Technique
His work has included drawings, copper etching, painting and sculpture. Woodroffe has developed a variety of resourceful techniques to produce natural-media artwork over the years, including a method for colouring etchings and Indian ink drawings using oil paint. The method requires applying a barrier layer of liquin to the drawing or etching. This layer must be allowed to dry thoroughly before the oil colour is applied in thin glazes.

[edit] Tomographs
Woodroffe's work also includes Tomographs (not to be confused with the medical scan - according to his book A Closer Look Woodroffe believed he had 'invented' the word in the seventies from the Greek words for 'cut' and 'drawing', until he found out about the medical usage). These are photographs that combine actual objects with cut-outs of his paintings (for example in one Tomograph Patrick is seen 'feeding' a cut-out picture of an anthropomorphic bird peanuts from his hand).

The picture on the front of his project The Forget-me-not-Gardener is a Tomograph.

http://www.patrickwoodroffe.com

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dnadsy52: Beautiful pictures...I didn't know this painter Thank you for "the teaching", I like even if I am not one erudite of art..A special Thanks..... d.

merseypier: Just enjoying this one, really nice.

terigower: getting used to this unusual work and its intrinsic wonder....quite new to me so thank u for sharing and letting me find something new ....... some miniature art ..... unique

krysant50: fantasy is at times close to illustrative art of fairy tale books it has traces of limitless imagination only artists and children possess, some naive way with which they all observe the world, in the way they do it we can find some goodness, freshness and sincerity then they grow up and these disaapear, i call it individuality and independence inherited in the young hearts. Artists stay always young at hearts txs for another great teaching of yours Sue you are a remarkable educator!

Author: tranmere123; Uploaded: Oct 10, 2009; Duration: 3:34; Views: 393

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