Paul Bloomer is a contemporary British artist living and working in the Shetland Islands.
Boundary Gallery, London
11 March to 24 April 2010
I have lived in Shetland for thirteen years and the unique light of
the northern hemisphere helps to shape the colors that live at the
center of my art.
In Shetland it is difficult to find a place where you are far from the sea . The sea shapes island life, forming a natural barrier that offers protection and harvest but brings with it an isolation that forges unique identity and strong community.
Some years ago when I was facing the sea I realized that I was also facing myself because on an island there is nowhere else to run.
My art became a confrontation with nature in a painterly battle between the secular and the sacred, and between the colors of light and the colors of dark.
In winter the shortening days bring painterly introspection and the absence of light is an important ingredient of the northern aesthetic . The low arc of the winter sun casts huge cool shadows across the land , and at night the northern lights dance a myriad of colors against frozen black horizons.
Boats help connect Shetland to the wider world and my boats symbolize mortality and the passing of time, a reminder of the fleeting fragile journey of life.
In the spring birds arrive and they become painterly bursts of color bringing messages from afar.
At Simmer Dim the light shines for 24 hours and all is well.
Today I drew a starling with a rainbow of color on his back that is all but hidden from the eyes of those who will refuse to see.
Paul Bloomer, Shetland, Febuary 2010
Some of my paintings at this exhibition can be seen in my New Exhibits section.
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