We are lucky enough to have four of Gary Saunt’s paintings on our walls at home. We never tire of looking at them and find something new and mischievous every time. Everyone who comes round asks about them and wants to know more. Gary is a prolific painter and visual entertainer, having produced hundreds of paintings using digital technology. His colossal digital painting, produced to commemorate Hull’s City of Culture Year in 2017, was on display in Beverley Art Gallery from October to December last year. Like much of Gary’s work the artwork took the form of a cultural pilgrimage from Beverley to Hull with a vivid and compelling ‘dreamscape’ that incorporated the familiar and the strange, the historic and the contemporary, the real and the surreal.
Read Gary’s River Hull story then take a close look at his phantasmagorical paintings below:
“I am drawn to paint dreamscapes based on the River Hull.
But once I was Alpha Zero 1, a senior officer in the fire and rescue service.
I still live in Beverley, where the river wends it’s tidal sway down past Kingswood, southward into the city.
In those other days, on my way to my H.Q., I always drove through the tired industrial heart of Hull.
A chance of checking that the old river-side road access was okay for the engines
And aware that some of the ancient local water mains are weak and low pressure
So then was a time to glimpse the river’s height and bear in mind the tide.
We sometimes set our fire pumps into that slow opaque water, jetting the river over our flaming follies.
Now I only have to paint.”
G.E Saunt
Painter and Divisional Fire Commander (Ret.)
“Perhaps we could try re-attaching ancient myths to our daily lives. Perhaps our eyes should choose more – linger on symbolism more than be fed rolling news. Perhaps we already live in waking dreamscapes – but not our own.”
Gary Saunt is an experienced artist, living and working in East Yorkshire. He studied painting, drawing and art history in the sixties and seventies. In recent years he has developed his established oil painting style into the digital format. He is a serious advocate of digital painting and you can discover more on his website here.
Signed prints are available from the Myton Gallery Website
Rich & Lou Duffy-Howard
Open Bridges made history when for the first time all 13 of the bridges over the River Hull in the UK’s City of Culture 2017 raised, swung or closed simultaneously splitting the city of Hull in two at 20:17 hours on 22nd September 2017. Historic vessels sailed down the River to be met by 21st century tugs.
Open Bridges is an independent Hull/East Yorkshire based project.