Howars Brooks paintings exhibition

Howars Brooks paintings exhibition is on show April 16-28

A brief encounter with Howard Brookes' oil paintings, with their startling clarity and sharpness might lead the casual observer to believe that they are enlarged photographs. Closer inspection reveals the refined drawing skills and brushwork that create the illusion.

A self-imposed exile under the pellucid Nordic light of the Isle of Marstrand enabled Brookes to develop a highly personal painting idiom. His super-realistic oil paintings are enigmatic and dazzling. These works transcend the simple tricks of photo-realism by possessing a mystical quality reminiscent of Böcklin or Di Chirico, but with a special English brand of absurd humour radiating inimitable otherworldliness.

The painter and composer Howard Brookes remains a singular, non-establishment figure on the contemporary art scene, yet many of his works have become so universally popular today that they are being described as classics of their own time.

Howars Brooks was born and grew up in Sweden; he studied Fine Art at Gloucestershire College of Art in Cheltenham, from where in 1969 he was awarded a travel prize to visit Sweden. Afterwards he moved there and settled in Gothenburg. 

The perfection of his technique however, has never been an end in itself, but rather the means by which Howard Brookes succeeds in projecting a unique and highly personal vision.