Philip Eley Art

PLACES DIMLY REMEMBERED

 

I have been developing my unique style over many years. I paint coastal villages from real life and my imagination. I live by the sea in beautiful Devon, UK, where there is plenty of inspiration. 

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When I create a piece, either painted, sculpted or collaged, I try to capture vague, dreamlike impression of places and memories. Although I have a real places in mind while I arrange my pieces, I never follow photographs. I want to catch vague, shadowy, memories of places, rather than something which looks too similar.

My villages are rusty and distressed, my paintings are loose and feint, and my collages are relaxed and informal. There is often a childlike melancholia running through my work. I like my pieces to remind people of time passing, and distant memories. 

My ideal is to present dream-like impressions of places dimly remembered. My favourite line in literature is from Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me.’

This is the feeling which I am trying to capture.