Ian Sidaway
Biography
Ian Sidaway was born in 1951 into a mining and clayworking community near Tamworth, Staffordshire. After a foundation course at Nuneaton School of Art, he studied graphic design at Twickenham College of Technology and briefly worked as a designer before concentrating on painting in the early 1970s. Alongside painting, he has worked as a builder, carpenter and gardener, restored and traded antiques, painted stage sets and worked as a painter and decorator. He has also illustrated books on subjects including travel, food and gardening, and has written and illustrated over 35 books on art technique, as well as contributing to practical art magazines.
He has exhibited widely, including at Federation of British Artists open exhibitions, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and galleries in London, Brighton and the USA. He has also led painting courses in Tuscany and Venice.
Artist Statement
Ian Sidaway works in a range of materials but continually returns to watercolour. He uses traditional transparent watercolour techniques, applying paint with a wide range of tools rather than brushes. His current subject matter focuses on landscape in the UK and abroad. Drawings and paintings are made on location, alongside photographs and written notes, while finished paintings are completed in the studio.
Strong composition, design and solid draughtsmanship, together with the simple pleasure of exploiting and using materials, are central to his practice. His intention is not to create a photographic representation, but a synthesis of things seen that hints at a sense of place. After years of working across different forms of art and illustration, he now concentrates on landscape.
For Sidaway, being an artist is hard work but also a daily freeing of the spirit, with no restrictions on the possibilities. He sees the struggle as being with ourselves as we strive to become increasingly better at what we do.