Paul Grifiths is an artist, not because he spent a lifetime studying the grand masters or painting portraits and landscapes from a young age, but because of something primal that drew him to this form of self-expression that gave him a new life.
This wonderful showcase is the story of a man who has finally found his voice, his life and experience told through his works.
Here’s a guy who spent years feeling marginalised and alone - with dyslexia, dyspraxia and Asperger’s undiagnosed until the age of 40, his feelings of separation and loneliness made the world a very difficult place to be. Like so many who struggle with learning difficulties, he was made to feel stupid and unappreciated, while a sea of thoughtful creativity and contemplative philosophy fought for an outlet but found none.
This wonderful showcase is the story of a man who has finally found his voice, his life and experience told through his works. So often these days artists can be pretentious and shallow, their obsession with the grand concepts and individualism finally leading them down the road of a formulaic rebellion, but not so here.
Grifiths tells the story of a man waking after a botched suicide attempt and finding a passion he barely knew existed through a chance invitation to a graduate fine art show; this collection of wonderfully naïve paintings charts his feelings and hopes and fears and dreams perfectly. As the university helped him discover the reasons for his difficulties up to that point he seems to have become free, seeing the world in colour once more.You can see this in his musings on New York, his colourful landscapes and more abstract pieces that show an artist exploring every corner of his creativity. Strong shapes and striking colours tell of a time of desperation in the early pieces; a series called A Near Miss shows a lighted window in the darkness - perhaps the perceived escape to freedom of someone lost and exasperated with a world that did not understand or care for him. Perhaps the glow of a second chance at life.
Then, in some of the later pieces especially from the series The Secret Path and Beyond the Secret Path there is a real sense of hope. These pieces are inspired by a path that Paul likes to take, beginning near his home in Kemp Town and leading uphill, covered by the arching branches of trees to the Brighton racecourse and the Downs. These evolving images of arching colour and dappled shapes and lights show an optimism and a positivity that he seems to revel in. The Secret Path seems to show a goal, a destination, a colourful inspiration, bright and inviting. Beyond the Secret Path seems more whimsical a speculation on what the future holds, what could be on the other side of now.
This exhibition is an uplifting experience, and tells a story that makes the heart glad. It is well worth visiting, and the lasting sense of optimism it instils gives great pleasure and inspires a thoughtful calm.
