PAUL RUMSEY
Two Decades Drawings
14th November to 6th December, 2015
Opening Day Saturday 14th November noon to 5pm. Wine served.
Exhibition hours Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm
Or by appointment – additional parking Swan Inn

All works for sale |
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Where enquiries of prices are
made on the gallery,
the work is subject to availability
and the price to change.
Library Skull,
Charcoal, 2015, 112 x 76 cms
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Academy Head 2012
Etching: edition 30. 22x30cm
£400 (unframed) |

Arrows 2015
Charcoal 23x29cm
£600
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Autumn 2015
Charcoal
33x23cm
£600
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Bull Man 2014
Charcoal 54x81cm
£1,350
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Cat 2015
Charcoal 23x33cm
£600
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Cerberus with Boat 2013
Cjarcpa; 39x60cm
£750
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Children of Echidna 2015
Charcoal 75x112cm
£2,800
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Crab 1995
Charcoal 29x25cm
£500
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Crowded I 1996
Charcoal 55x62cm
SOLD
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Demons on Globe 1995
Charcoal 62x54cm
£1,200
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Divided 2015
Charcoal 23x33cm
£600
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Dove Tank 1997
Charcoal 28x38cm
SOLD |

Echidna (Snake Woman) 2014
Charcoal 56x40cm
SOLD |

From Roots to Tree and Fruit 2004
Ink
37x21cm
£450
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Furies 2007
Charcoal 85x77cm
£1,500
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Giant in Pit 1995
Charcoal 62x48cm
£1,100 |

Goat Men 2015
Charcoal 23x33cm
£600
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Library Skull 2015
Charcoal 112x76cm
SOLD
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Lies 1996
Charcoal 55x62cm
£900
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Love Fortune Death 2014
Charcoal 51x81cm
SOLD
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Man in Space 1995
Charcoal 26x34cm
SOLD
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Memory Tree 2010
Charcoal 106x68cm
£1,700
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Missile Head 1998
Charcoal 55x75cm
£1,350
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Molech Carried 2015
Charcoal 23x33cm
£600
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Old Woman 2011
Charcoal 29x21cm
SOLD
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Library Skull 2015
Charcoal 112x76cm
SOLD
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Procession 2002
Charcoal 53x36cm
£900 |

Rhino 2014
Charcoal 26x26cm
SOLD |

Rock Heads 2001
Charcoal 55x75cm
£1,000
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Saturn Devouring His Children
Charcoal 55x42cm
£1,300
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Scaffold Head 1998
Charcoal 75x55cm
£1,500
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Sisyphus Rock 2005
Charcoal 77x75cm
£1,500
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Skeletons on the Gallows 2004
Charcoal 38x24cm
SOLD
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Sphinx and Oedipus 2014
Charcoal 56x40cm
£1,100
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Sphinx Statue 1999
Charcoal 37x27cm
£650
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Spring 2015
Charcoal 33x23cm
£600
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Sprouting Head 2002
Charcoal 36x55cm
£900
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Summer 2015
Charcoal 33x23cm
£600
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The Arrows of Artemis 2002
Charcoal 102x60cm
£1,800
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Three Faces 1996
Charcoal 32x26cm
SOLD
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Tree of Figures I 1997
Charcoal 75x57cm
£1,200
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Vultures 1996
Charcoal 39x66cm
£900
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Winter 2015
Charcoal 33x23cm
£600
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Library Head 1999
Charcoal
75 x 55cm
£1,950 |
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Autumn, Spring, Summer, Winter being sold separately at £600 each or as a set at £2,000
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When asked to write about Paul Rumsey and his work I looked online to get some background and found a blog that could be said to describe the essence of his work:
“Whoah this is very deep dark shadowy… I love it with a spice of magnitude greatness of scary imagery, and emo skittish art design!”
Personally, I would describe Paul’s work as dark, grotesque, fantastic, macabre, sometimes erotic but always with great attention to detail.
I first came across Paul’s art through a work on display in Chelmsford Museum – ‘Museum Head’ – a stunning piece that allows the viewer to see the museum from within the museum. On joining the museum as Curator of Art I acquired a set of Paul’s prints (from Chappel Galleries) and asked Paul if he would co-curate an exhibition with Waj Mirecki: the dark gothic work of Paul alongside the colourful watercolours of Waj. The resulting exhibition ‘Light and Dark’ was both popular and successful.
Paul travelled a long road of contrariness, defiance and resistance before finding his style. Rebelling at school he showed a talent for drawing and at 16 went to art college in Colchester where his tutors disapproved of his influences which included Alfred Kubin’s Dance of Death drawings and Goya’s Caprichos, Disasters of War and Disparates. Taking a more conventional approach he won a travel award and spent three months travelling around Italy and Austria following his muse. On his return he started a BA at Chelsea School of Art. He still felt out of place, having little interest in abstraction or modern art. In 1977 he left art school and met his wife, the artist Terry Curling. They lived in Fulham, and for the next ten years Paul, encouraged by Terry, painted large figure compositions and drew hundreds of ideas in sketchbooks, developing and refining his own style. Gradually he started to enter competitions and exhibit his work.
In 1989 Terry gave birth to twin daughters and they moved to Wivenhoe, near Colchester. In 1995 Paul visited Chappel Galleries where he has had a number of successful shows. The internet has helped Paul reach an even wider audience and his on-line popularity has led to his drawings being exhibited outside the UK, particularly in France, where his work has been shown alongside drawings by Alfred Kubin at the Abbaye d’Auberive and at the Galerie Béatrice Soulié in Paris.
Paul’s inspiration comes from watching the news, reading papers, books of history, folktales, mythology or from his own imagination or dreams. He draws in charcoal or ink on paper or card, using tones rather than lines. He makes changes and corrections with erasers and sandpaper, working and reworking the picture, looking to perfect the image he has in his head, concealing details in shadows or bleaching them out with a glare of light.
Paul’s work belongs to the tradition of the grotesque and fantastic. He distorts reality in his work by the mixing of forms, changes of scale, elongations, compressions and reversals, a distorted reflection which shows the world in a different light, a different perspective, the world re-imagined in a dream – sometimes erotic – but always stunning, grabbing the viewer’s interest then drawing them in by an ever increasing labyrinth of detail.
Dr Mark Curteis, 2015
Curator of Social History and Art, Chelmsford Museum. 2015
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PAUL RUMSEY |
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Born 1956 Essex |
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Foundation Course, Colchester School of Art and Design |
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Awarded Munnings Travel Scholarship
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B.A., Chelsea School of Art, London |
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‘South Bank Picture Show’, Royal Festival Hall (Drawing Prize; Peoples Prize; Third Prize)
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‘Spectator Art Award’ Show (Second Prize) – Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Barbican Gallery, London
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‘Drawings For All’ (Highly Commended Prize), Sudbury
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‘Eastern Open’ (Lady Evershed Drawing Prize), Kings Lynn Arts Centre
'Drawings For All’ (Third Prize), Gainsborough House, Sudbury
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Acquisition of drawing ‘Museum Head’ by Chelmsford Borough Museum
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cquisition of three pictures by Abbaye d’Auberive Art Contemparain Collection, France
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SOLO AND JOINT SHOWS |
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East West Gallery, London
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Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff (to accompany “Coffee” by Edward Bond with the Rational Theatre Company)
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Royal Court Theatre, London (to accompany “Coffee”) |
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Gainsborough House, Sudbury, Suffolk |
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University of Glamorgan |
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Chappel Galleries, Essex |
1999 |
Chappel Galleries ‘New Charcoal Drawings’ |
2000 |
Chappel Galleries, with Laurence Edwards Sculpture |
2002 |
Chappel Galleries, Essex with Jonathan Clarke Sculpture |
2005 |
Chappel Galleries, Essex “Drawings from the Imagination” |
2007 |
Dreams & Mythologies, Piers Feetham Gallery, London |
2009 |
Chappel Galleries, Essex (with Terry Curling and Mary Griffiths)
Dra
wings by Paul Rumsey to accompany the book “The Fantastical Feats of Finn MacCoul” with published drawings by Paul Rumsey |
2010 |
"Fusains" Galerie Beatrice Soulie, Paris |
2011 |
Soren/Pouppeville/Rumsey, "Salon des Refuses", Galeries Béatrice Soulié, Paris |
2013 |
9th February to 21st April: Chelmsford Borough Museum – joint exhibition with Władysław Mirecki
Piers Feetham Gallery, London, Joint show with Terry Curling
Galerie Béatrice Soulié, Paris, Joint show with Terry Curling
Galerie Béatrice Soulié, Marseille, Joint show with Terry Curling |
2015 |
Chappel Galleries, Essex: Two Decades web site – live from January 2015
Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe, Essex with Jill Desborough
Chappel Galleries, Essex: Two Decades Solo Show 14th November – 6th December |
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GROUP SHOWS |
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‘Spectator Art Award’ Show |
1988-92 |
‘South Bank Picture Show’, Royal Festival Hall |
1988, 94, 96, 98, 00 |
‘Drawings For All’, Sudbury |
1991 |
‘View of the New’, Royal Overseas League, London |
1991-2005 |
East West Gallery, London |
1992 |
‘Figures’ Exhibition, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield |
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Merz Gallery, London |
1994 |
Art Bus, Fife, Scottish Arts Council Tour Show to Schools etc. |
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The Minories, Colchester, Essex Open |
1995 |
Chappel Galleries, Essex |
1996-99 |
‘Cheltenham Open Drawing’, Cheltenham, Gloucester College of Higher Education, plus tour to Berlin 1999 |
1996, 2000-02 |
‘Eastern Open’, Kings Lynn |
1999 |
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition |
2003 |
“Unquiet Voices” an exhibition of English and American Visionary Art 1903–2003, with Joe Coleman, Von Stropp, Austin Spare, Norbert Kox, Charles Benefiel, Nick Blinko, Malcolm McKesson, Laurie Lipton, Donald Pass with the Henry Boxer Gallery at the Horse Hospital, London |
2004 |
Hunting Art Award Show, Royal College of Art, London |
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British Art Fair, Henry Boxer Gallery |
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The Affordable Art Fair, Piers Feetham Gallery |
2004-09 |
“Drawn to the Line” Piers Feetham Gallery, London |
2005 |
“Drawing the Line” at Orleans House with the Henry Boxer Gallery |
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East West Gallery Artists at the Royal Overseas League, Edinburgh |
2006 |
Inner Landscapes: Outsider & Visionary Art, Plymouth Arts Centre. With the Henry Boxer Gallery |
2008 |
CARNIVORA, 'The Dark Art of the Automobile', C Pop Gallery, Detroit, USA |
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CARNIVORA, 'The Dark art of the Automobile', L'imagerie Gallery, North Hollywood, USA |
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New Blood Rising, Fuse Gallery, New York, USA |
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The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA |
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20/21, British Art Fair with Piers Feetham, London/Henry Boxer, London |
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The Morbid Anatomy Cabinet, Barristers Gallery, New Orleans, USA |
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The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA |
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The Damned Show, Tangent Gallery, Detroit, USA |
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Christmas Mixed Exhibition, Chappel Galleries, Essex |
2010 |
The Art of Still Life Chappel Galleries, Essex |
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20th Anniversary Exhibition East West Gallery London |
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'DRAW' at the Museo de la Cuidad de Mexico, Mexico City |
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BeinArt Collective Group Exhibition Copro Gallery Santa Monica California |
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"Alfred Kubin et vingt createurs contemporains du dessin", Abbaye d'Auberive,
France |
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"MOSAIQUES 2010" L'exposition d'art contemporain a Pont - Sainte - Marie (Aube) Troyes, France
The 13th Hour , Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA |
2011 |
Salon de Mai 2011, Paris
“ Dystopia” BeinArt Collective Group Exhibition, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, California
“ TERMINUS”, Villa Mainau 34, Zurich, curated by Les Barany and Marco Witzig
The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA |
2012 |
Le Salon du Dessin Contemporain, DRAWING NOW, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, Galerie Beatrice Soulie presents drawings by Isabelle Jarousse and Paul Rumsey
London Print Fair, with Jonathan Pascoe Pratt
“The 13th Hour” Last Rites Gallery, New York, USA
British Art Fair with Henry Boxer, London
Cabinet DA-END 02, Galerie DA-End, Paris |
2013 |
EN-TETES, Topographie de l’art, Paris
L ’Exposition L’Appartement, Talents Boutique, Paris
beinArt Collective Group Exhibition, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, California, USA |
2015 |
‘Beautiful Grotesque’ Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo, Colorado, USA. |
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