Ian Norris studied fine art at Blackburn College of Art and is one of the leading painters of expressive landscapes and coastal scenes, interiors, and still lifes in the north of England.
Ian Norris starts the process of any painting by producing numerous drawings and small studies from observation. Then the artist returns to the studio to paint larger works from memory, using his sketches and studies as a reference. Norris expresses feelings of being before his subject or present in a place, relying upon memory, instinct, and the act of drawing and painting to bring about the work of art. The artist uses abstraction to reveal this emotional underpinning, and his organic process embraces chance, spontaneity, and modification.
Norris is interested in the physicality of paint itself. His larger paintings contain multiple applications of paint to create texture and layers; sometimes small or entire sections are scraped back to unveil a variety of colours and textures in the depths of the board or canvas.
‘I like to deal with subject matter that is familiar to me — whether that is a landscape, a coastline, a cityscape, or the interior of my studio. I usually work on the same motif over long periods’.
— Ian Norris
Selected solo exhibitions
2016 Castlegate House Gallery – ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
2014 Castlegate House Gallery – ‘Tracing the Derwent’
2013 Castlegate House Gallery – ‘Ian Norris, in the Open’
2013 Oriel Plas Gyn-y-Weddw – ‘A Passion for the Sea’
Selected group exhibitions
2019 Contemporary Six – Ian Norris and Ken Matsuzaki
2015 Portland Gallery London – Portland Preview
2015 MAFA Spring Exhibition – Portico Library Manchester
2014 RCA/MAFA joint exhibition – Royal Cambrian Academy Colwyn Bay
2014 Picture House Gallery – Passion for Paint
2013 Josie Eastwood Gallery – Spring Show
2012 Streets Places Journeys – Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
2012 Wendy Levy – Summer Show
2012 Oriel Plas Gyn-y-Weddw – Summer Show
2012 MAFA – Bury Art Gallery
2012 'Further North' – Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden
2012 Exhibition of Northern Artists – Peter Pears Galley Aldeburgh
2012 MAFA – Buxton Art Gallery