All of my work is really just a visual diary of objects encountered, things seen and moments experienced that inspire and compel me to draw or paint that moment or thing.
Born in Newcastle under Lyme in 1953, son of the welsh sculptor Jack Llewelyn Waldron (1923-1984). Dylan Waldron studied at the Stourbridge College of Art and Wolverhampton Polytechnic Faculty of Art and Design. Graduated with BA Hons Art & Design in 1976 and since then he has worked fulltime as a practising artist.
Dylan’s painting style has its roots in traditional techniques, with each piece of work having between twenty and thirty layers of translucent colour glazes, built up to achieve depth of tone and luminosity, with a finely worked and highly detailed finish. Fast drying media such as acrylic or egg tempera are normally used and the support is usually archival quality paper, board or prepared panel. The subjects depicted are personal and carefully chosen, whether this is material for a still-life, a domestic interior, a much loved landscape or a portrait/nude study. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, receiving numerous awards and prizes.
His work is included in many private collections worldwide as well as many public and private collections in the UK. Dylan was elected a Member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 2009.
“My work overall consists of four parallel themes on which I travel from one to another as they inspire me. They are: Still Life – including Botanical Studies, Domestic Interiors, Portraiture and Landscape.
I prefer to work small scale in a highly detailed, realist style and my favoured painting media are the fast drying water diluted media: Acrtylic, Gouache, Watercolour and Tempera. This enables a painting to be built up rapidly with many successive layers or glazes of translucent colour.
I like small paintings as their scale creates an intimacy that large works do not have.
When I need a change from painting and the subject demands it I enjoy making highly finished drawings in pencil or silverpoint.
My still-life painting is very much influenced by the17th Century Spanish paintings: Sanchez Cotán and Zurbarán. I love the austerity of their compositions. The subjects set straight forwardly on a ledge against a black background emphasising the sensuality of the subject and suggesting a deeper significance than merely decorative.
When I compost objects on a ledge I try to create relationships between them, almost like actors on a stage, animated and interrelated with one another with a bit of drama going on. The still-life makes a seasonal pilgrimage into the garden in Spring with the explosion of flowering colour. Each year I feel compelled in particular to paint the uniquely strange Snake’s Head Fritillaries.
With my paintings of domestic interiors I am fascinated by the effects, of light and shadow and stillness, and the implied presence of whoever inhabits that interior, such as a jacket hanging on a door, an item of clothing draped about or an unmade bed. My influences in this area, although I was doing them before I encountered these artists, are David Tindle RA and the Americans Andrew Wyeth and photographer Walker Evans.
Portraiture I prefer to do as drawing, either in pencil or silverpoint. Silverpoint is the far more difficult and scary medium as it does not allow for alteration or erasure but it draws an exquisitely beautiful fine line like no other drawing medium, it ages beautifully and it is wonderful for wrinkles! My artists of influence in portraiture are, above all, Dürer and Holbein.
My landscapes are almost always winter, with snow, as I like the dramatic tonal contrast, the defined lines of hedge and field and the twiggy skeletal structure of the trees. All these things get blurred with summer foliage.
EXHIBITIONS:
Every year since 1983 Dylan has had works shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
1980-2004 Ombersley Gallery, Worcestershire
1981-1996 Piccadilly Gallery, Cork Street, London
1988-2009 The City Art Gallery, Leicester
1987-2009 Leicester Society of Artists, Leicester Musuem and Art Gallery
1988-2018 Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland
2007-2009 Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
Art Prizes:
The Discerning Eye
Hunting Group Art Prize
First Prize: Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 2013
Collections:
Sir Stuart Rose
The Lord Annan
East Midland Arts
West Midlands Art Association
Basildon Arts Trust
University of Leicester
Birmingham Museum Trust
Royal Birmingham Society of Artist’s permanent collection