Colin Merrin

ELECTED ARWS 2009 & RWS 2013

Originally from East London, Colin lives and works in Southsea, Hampshire. He studied at Maidstone College of Art, Kingston University and the Institute of Education, University of London. 

Colin's work involves a process of building up layers of paint, collage and other materials. Newspaper texts are incorporated, buried and half buried, into the painted surface, adding commentary, context and historical signposting. A landscape painter for many years, the more recent political environment, caused him to reconsider his subject matter and further developed his interest in the notion of humanness, in particular our shared need to belong and invent beliefs and meanings to explain the world.

'I happily painted trees, rivers, buildings and streets, usually devoid of human beings, until one day, like many other people, I felt the unease and uncertainty we were experiencing politically and wanted to address this as a painter. Faces are my new landscapes. Places we walk through and explore'.

colinmerrin.co.uk