Claude Allweathers is a fellow with Digswell Arts at the Fenner Building Letchworth. UK. After finishing a master’s in Fine Arts in Barcelona 1999 and bumming around Spain for ten years he came back to UK to Letchworth. Finding work as a road sweeper he adopted the pseudonym ALLWEATHERS because everyday someone would say to him ” you must be out in all weathers” they still do.
it wasn’t long before the digswell arts trust took over the fenner building and he saw the opportunity of a studio to paint in.This show ”death is not the end” is his first solo show in england this century and is a continuation of his usual style working from inside out
‘THE DESCENT’
by Daniel Thiele
Traverse the raw kaleidoscopic interior landscapes of a nomadic soul in search of the transformative essence of his own renaissance.Descend into the Dantesque labyrinthine depths of each fragmented canvas and engage in a titanic struggle between two-edged demons and primeval emotions.
Frantic,angry,volcanic energy erupts into a mixture of dark,threatening forces and redeeming sources of spirit, fusing into a shamanic harmony of fluorescent colours.
Ancient, tribal, religious and mythical totemic motifs are strewn across these magical mindscapes like guiding clues to springs of nourishment from a lost world.
Layer by layer, he strips away outgrown protective masks, deconstructing conditioned and self-made disfigured parts of himself. Risking fragile vulnerability, he tentatively begins the pursuit of the ethereal regions of self-renewal.
Allweathers, a humble road sweeper and a spontaneous uncompromising, brutal artist, weathers all, in a courageous effort to sweep away the debris of his own hell.
Somewhere amongst all the debris lie buried treasures…….
“I’m a tormented dreamer,”says Allweathers,
- How would you describe your current practice (e.g. materials, techniques, themes, key questions, approach)?
My paintings are large so I can attack them better, I don’t like to think too much its always the good stuff that happens in a flash so that’s where I lay. At the moment I’m using acrylics but use oils and mix them with crayons and anything that comes to hand my work is all about the moment.
- What are you working on at the moment (forthcoming exhibitions, events, workshops etc)?
The work I’m doing at the moment is being exhibited at the Fenner gallery now and I have sold most of it which is nice . I like to have a stock also so I’m ready to show at any given time.
- What are your plans for the coming year.
I will continue to work on big self made canvasses and try to improve my thing.
- What is the question you get asked most about your work and how do you answer it?
There isn’t a question because people don’t ask me questions normally. This will probably change in the future.
- What or who inspired you to be an artist and why?
A chain of events which started when I read Pollocks biography, followed by working as a painter and decorator and putting it all together in art school. I was inspired by the late Alan Davie whom I met at collage .
- Which artist do you most admire and why?
Alan Davie because of the richness of his paintings
- How has your relationship with Digswell Arts Trust strengthened your practice as an artist?
The trust is my place of work and I love to be there ,I work all the time thanks to Digswell. There’s no other way to improve in my book.
