Visual Arts

Some people's idea of what an artist does is an image of a dilettante who spends more time on art theory than art in practice. Well, local artist Shane Green puts that notion to bed with an incredible output of paintings, carvings, etchings and sculpture.

In the last 25 years as a professional artist, Shane reckons he has produced over 8,000 pieces of work in a variety of styles. Sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative, his work reflects the changing nature of our urban skylines alongside rural scenes, all done with a vivid grasp of colour.

Brought up in Hunslet, Shane attended the Leeds College of Art and then studied Fine Art in Birmingham. He has worked in educational establishments passing on his knowledge and also exhibited in the USA after an exhange program involving Fulbright scholars.

Shane Green

"I find it difficult to stay still, stick in one place artistically. I grab a theme and exhaust it, move on to a new theme and exhaust that. I've never been stuck for inspiration. The ability to switch disciplines helps - if I don't feel that painting is doing it for me, then I can work on my sculpture or woodcarvings like the ones I did that are on Otley Chevin."

"Sometimes I feel that a purely figurative representation of the subject is what I'm after, but on another day I could paint the same scene completely differently - it all depends on the emotions I want to express at the the time."

"A lot of my painting is very vivid and colourful, which I like as a contrast to some of the grey urban landscapes that I actually see before me. Sometimes the cold, harsh realism of modern architecture needs to be met with the colour of human expression."

"There's no set canvas size that I prefer, again it comes down to how I feel about the subject. People have said that they can detect a feeling for the graffiti art prevalent in many urban areas and that's true. Jean-Michel Basquiat is a great influence with the vivacity of his work, but despite the abstract nature of some of my work I'm very much a traditionalist, which I think makes me an outsider in the art world."

"The old artistic disciplines of painting and sculpture are struggling to maintain their validity in today's art world, obsessed with concept. Maybe it's my working class upbringing coming through but I believe in making art accessible and inclusive - bring the public INTO your world rather than excluding them!"

"There's a political edge to some paintings but I don't want to ram that down people's throats. The message is there for those who look for it, but it is never the main raison d'etre for the creation of the painting - art should stand on the image, not just the message."

Shane Green's work will be on display at the West Yorkshire Playhouse throughout November 2008.