Ross Eccles (born 13 November 1937) is a contemporary English

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He has been based in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

since 1971, and exhibits there regularly. He has also exhibited his work in the UK, France and the US.

Life and work

Ross Eccles was born in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 193

He was educated at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School and later studied

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

at the Birmingham School of Architecture. He practiced as an architect for 30 years, first in England and then in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, before settling in Ireland where he ran his own practice up until 1992. In 1992 he retired from Architecture in order to devote himself to art on a full-time basis. Ross’s often twisted, abstract style of painting is a reaction to the rigidity and structure that he faced as an architect. His architectural background has undoubtedly influenced his artworks and his subjects frequently include familiar architectural landmarks, although these are painted in an entirely new light that reflects the artist’s own vision, with bold colours and broken lines. His paintings are created to provide a fresh perspective on otherwise mundane subjects and to free the viewer from the confinements and limitations of everyday existence. Ross often gives demonstrations to school students in the hope that he can get them to see the world around them in a new way and change their mindset in regards to life and art. He believes that conventional teaching “moulds people into similar patterns and suppresses natural individuality”.Ross Eccles Biography, www.rosseccles.com His early work and style was influenced by his architectural training and was in the form of architectural sketches and watercolours. In recent years Ross’s style has become looser and his brushstrokes more obvious and less defined as he works more and more with acrylic paint. There is a lot of movement within his works and an emphasis on the importance of colour and light over line. Rather than recreating the subject precisely he wants to re-create the sense of what the eye captures when it looks at the subject and merge that with an element of fantasy to create a fresh vision of an everyday subject matter. His main influences include the Surrealists, the Cubists and the Impressionists .

References

*''Art Attack'', Lancashire Life Magazine, July 2008 *''Star Attractions'',

Lancashire Telegraph The ''Lancashire Telegraph'', formerly the ''Lancashire Evening Telegraph'', is a local tabloid newspaper distributed in East Lancashire, England. It is edited by Richard Duggan. The ''Lancashire Telegraph'' prints Monday to Saturday. There a ...

, May 14, 2008 *''Rovers Ace to Open Show'', Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, May 1, 2008 *''Artist’s Visit'', Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, May 1, 2008 *''What a Draw'', by Mauve Quigley,

ICROSS International Community for the Relief of Suffering and Starvation (ICROSS) is an international non-governmental organisation that provides health and development services for pastoral communities in East Africa. The organisation was formerly kno ...

Celebrity Art Auction, Sunday Mirror, November 10, 2002

External links

Westholme School - Upper SchoolRoss Eccles - Contemporary Art - BiographyThe Green Gallery Dublin - Irish Art, Art Gallery Dublin, Galleries in Dublin, Gallery Ireland, Irish Gallery, Dublin Art Gallery, IrelandRoss Eccles art for sale and Biography – Artbank.comThe ROSS ECCLES CollectionRoss - A Journey into Art - Matador Non-Fiction - Dawn EcclesWOW.ie - Ross Eccles Dublin Book LaunchJuxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine - Ross Eccles 'In Which We Exist' Exhibition - Infusion Gallery Los AngelesArt Slant Los Angeles - Ross Eccles Autotelism Exhibition
* ttp://www.citizenla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=620 Citizen LA - Art Spotting - Andie Villafane - April 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Eccles, Ross 1937 births 20th-century English painters English male painters English contemporary artists 21st-century English painters Living people Artists from Blackburn People educated at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists