Chris Bourne
Chris
trained at the Guildford School of Art and London
College of Printing in the late sixties. In his
early career he worked predominantly in the media,
in large corporations and cultural bodies as a
writer and designer. Later he moved towards more
strategic roles in corporate and cultural
development.
Recently returning to drawing after leaving it sadly neglected since the Beatles were a band, he has come back to manual fine arts because of a realisation that all of his work, as a writer, a photographer and in other media held a secret hidden even from him. It was while preparing for an exhibition and reviewing his portfolio that he suddenly realised that whatever his subject or task, all that he has ever produced is portraits.
'I was looking at some of my landscapes and images of critters, and realised they had all been approached as portraits. Then the comment was made that my approach to fiction is like this too, driven by character and personality. As if this were not enough, it then dawned on me that process of developing a brand or building advocacy for a development programme is just the same. A brand is, or should be, character-driven. Advocacy, done well, is the dramatic portrait of a set of ideas.'
While much of his current studio work is about recovering technique, it is also an adventure in doing what he has always done, seeing something in people and describing it, often affectionately, always respectfully, and generally with unanswered questions.
Recently returning to drawing after leaving it sadly neglected since the Beatles were a band, he has come back to manual fine arts because of a realisation that all of his work, as a writer, a photographer and in other media held a secret hidden even from him. It was while preparing for an exhibition and reviewing his portfolio that he suddenly realised that whatever his subject or task, all that he has ever produced is portraits.
'I was looking at some of my landscapes and images of critters, and realised they had all been approached as portraits. Then the comment was made that my approach to fiction is like this too, driven by character and personality. As if this were not enough, it then dawned on me that process of developing a brand or building advocacy for a development programme is just the same. A brand is, or should be, character-driven. Advocacy, done well, is the dramatic portrait of a set of ideas.'
While much of his current studio work is about recovering technique, it is also an adventure in doing what he has always done, seeing something in people and describing it, often affectionately, always respectfully, and generally with unanswered questions.
