Jeremy Houghton Art

Over the past year, free from commercial constraints, Jeremy Houghton has been indulging in the luxury of simply painting for himself. With large canvases, big brushes, lashings of oil paint and the sweet smell of turps, all thrown together in his Cotswold studio, it has been an artistic feast, a liberation, an awakening.
Why Flamingos? "Because I have yet to find any other natural phenomenon which offers such a kaleidoscope of creative choices. When you see thousands of moving lines and shapes all blending together with their watery reflections and coalescing with the palette‘s entire spectrum, whilst simultaneously being transformed by the ever changing position of the sun, you have discovered the giant of ‘chameleons‘."
Houghton‘s creative need for change and reinvention is thus assured, allowing him to paint with freedom and fluidity. If style and consistency are necessary, his subjects have been the provider, allowing him to simply play and experiment with the paint. For it is the painting process itself that is ultimately important, which in turn portrays Houghton‘s expressions, based on his philosophy of simplification. The flamingos are used as props and metaphors for feminimity, simplified and distilled into the essentials; a process of elimination. His vision is an exercise of composition - form, balance and technique, successfully played out before our eyes, resulting in pictures which provide visual indulgence and pure escapism.