Alex Houston

This is something that only Alex will know but he did tell me “it’s always something that has come naturally to me and because of that, it’s just something that I have always done” any more than then these few humble words we will never know.

It’s a feeling, life is a feeling and there are multiple aspects to prejudice them, yes there is sight, sound, touch but then there is tempter, barometric pressure. What Alex work does is reach deep down into your memory bank evoking the release of chemicals prejudice emotions giving his work a feeling. I have stood and sat in the places looking at what he was seeing at that time and I can tell you that’s how that moment feels. Texture features in the majority of Alex's work from the last 30 years and it gives it another dimension that he used to control colour and motion. When the paint is raised it cast a shadow changing the tone as well as the ambience. In some of his work, there is even string and wire attached to the board and painted over to achieve this. As well as a degree of control using the technique it will also subtly change the way the picture appears depending on where you stand and where the light is coming from. His portraits are very different, especially to Alex, trenchantly they are the same style as the landscapes and use texture similarly. However, they take up to 5 years to complete to achieve the feel that Alex is looking for. To sum up, when Alex looks at the work it must make him feel exactly how he imagined when he was in the subject’s presence. The background must be exactly as the stories and tales that the person told him, and he is not satisfied with the work until it evokes every emotion that he has experienced with that person. For me, his portraits can evoke a real sense, joy, sadness, emptiness, sorrow and more from the subject. And surely that is the definition of truly great art when it depicts aspects of life and emotion that we all feel but never talk about, not even to family or life partners.

Visually Alex' work can be very different between decades and I think that says more about Alex than his work. It is the same special quality and still very distinctive but the lens that the artist views the world through changes over time.