My Solo Exhibition: "Soldier as Artist"

A Journey of Art and Reflection

This was my solo exhibition held at St George’s Arts Centre, Gravesend, on behalf of myself and Gravesham Borough Council, partly under the Forces Covenant. I received an email in March from the Arts and Culture Director at Gravesham Borough Council, asking if I would be willing to do a solo exhibition of several of my works within the gallery. I had exhibited there before — one or two paintings as part of larger exhibitions — but this time, I was asked to do a solo exhibition, which I obviously jumped at the chance.

The space is fairly big. It’s a typical white cube gallery, but it is quite large. I worked out that I could exhibit 35 to 40 paintings of various sizes and subjects. Curating that was quite a task. I decided early on that I didn’t want to limit myself to just one type of painting — military scenes or landscapes. Instead, I wanted to show a broad breadth and depth of my work and my ability.

The Title: "Soldier as Artist"

The exhibition was titled “Soldier as Artist” because they approached me under the Armed Forces Covenant. Being a veteran myself, that was the link to the council and the reason they wanted to give me this opportunity. Having had a successful solo exhibition at the Royal Engineers Museum previously, entitled “Sapper as Artist,” I wanted to continue that theme. I decided there would be three distinct themes within the gallery on the three main walls:

1. Military Wall – This wall featured a combination of current military scenes and some landscapes and paintings I’d made from my grandfather’s World War II photographs. These were in various mediums, mainly oil on canvas, though there were also some watercolours and a few critiques.

   
   

2. Landscape Wall – This wall varied between many Kent-based landscapes, as well as others such as:

3. A painting done in Dubai

4. Landscapes of Derbyshire in the snow

6. Various other scenes, including paintings of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral




7. Eclectic Wall – A mix of works including:

8. Still lifes of flowers and vases

9. A painting of fireworks and a stage at Last Night of the Proms (oil on canvas board at Leeds Castle)

10. A painting of a carousel at Bremen Christmas Market

11. A painting of the Three Little Piggies

13. A memento mori painting of a skull and books.

The Creative Process

While deciding what to curate and exhibit, the director asked me if I had any 3D work or sculpture. I don’t — I’m a painter — but it got me thinking about what I could create. I had a 3D-printed skull, which I’d used for the memento mori piece — a study for previous still lifes. This skull was 3D printed by a friend, and because of its plastic resin nature, it’s anatomically correct. I realised I could use it — especially because of the symbolism of remembrance and the military connection.

I painted the skull with a series of poppies and vines, and this worked really well. I was quite happy with the finished piece. It became a real dichotomy between life and death: taking something macabre like a skull and painting beautiful flowers and poppies changed the feeling towards the piece itself. When installed, this piece was really popular, housed in a glass case — and it became one of the main talking points.

Curating the Exhibition

When I installed the exhibition — and this links very much to Chatty Paintings and this project — I had to decide which painting went where, and what each was next to. Almost as though they were talking to each other or in conversation, or even in orchestra with each other. So the exhibition was not only curated in a way that made sense for visitors — not looking like a mishmash — but had a fluidity and common-sense approach, where viewers could clearly see the themes. It was also about ensuring that paintings complemented each other.

The event ran from 22nd April to 11th May — a nice chunk of time. I had a private viewing with members of the council and the Mayor of Gravesend, which was really successful. I sold a couple of paintings, and the councillors and the mayor were genuinely interested in my work and my journey. It was covered by photographers from a couple of military magazines, and I’m fortunate enough to be featured in them. They were intrigued by my art, how I’d come to it later in life, trying to entertain my daughter — and the story around that.

Visitor Experience and Feedback

The exhibition was very successful, with over 700 visitors. It was very well received, and the council has since asked me to curate a Remembrance exhibition later in the year, and possibly design and deliver an art workshop. This was all evidenced in the visitors' book with some wonderful comments, such as:

• “Beautiful works, thank you for your service and for your work.”

• “Some amazing pictures from an amazing life — thank you for sharing them.”

• “Beautiful work drawing from a broad range of experiences — fantastic.”

• “Lovely work — great — you are very talented.”

  
  

To have my art exhibited as a solo exhibition and to show it in public with so many pieces, from the painting of HMS Ark Royal being towed to her final berth, to the skull in the glass case, and have it all so well received, was validation and recognition as an artist.

Lessons Learned

It was a great learning curve — curating my own exhibition with my own work and trying to get that right was a real challenge, and really beneficial. I learned so much.

How does that link into this theme or this topic? Well, Exercise Four very much asks us to complete work on a theme through production work, emerging from our current practice, concerns, and responses to insights we’ve gained.

This exhibition was running very much while I was completing this project — Project Five — and, by doing this, it was a response to this unit. It was a response to the chatty paintings, conversations, how elements or paintings can “talk” to each other, and host a conversation. The curatorial process, deciding placement, theme, and narrative was directly influenced by this research, especially the idea of paintings as active participants in dialogue. As a result, this exhibition was not only a public showing of my work but also a response in real terms to the concept of conversations in painting and cross-medium storytelling.