COMMISSIONS WELCOME: PORTRAITS, HOMES, GARDENS, PETS, CHILDREN.....
Alan
Wilkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees, England, in 1941, and apart
from four years at Durham University, has lived there all his life.
Since childhood he has been fascinated by drawing and painting, and at
age eighteen on leaving school he planned to take a degree in Fine Art,
at King's College, Newcastle. However, circumstances dictated otherwise,
and instead he did his degree in French, followed by two years'
teaching. In 1965 he joined ICI, and spent the next 32 years with that
company, all of them on Teesside, in Work Study, Personnel, Quality and
Manufacturing Technology.
During all that time he has drawn and painted in his spare time, as well
as attending a number of part time courses at Cleveland College of Art
and Design. Having retired from ICI, he embarked on the Fine Art
Degree (at CCAD) which he had originally planned to undertake 40 years
previously - hence the title of his first one-man exhibition,
"Unfinished Business", held in February - March 2001. He graduated in
June 2006. To view a short video of his degree show exhibition, click on
the following link:
Degree Show Movie
Alan's other interests include playing music (which, in his view, "is
not a spectator sport"), and he has over the years been involved in all
kinds of music on Teesside - including some years as a member of The
Fettlers folk group, though his particular passion is for jazz. All the
music featured on this website is played by Alan, using multi-tracking
techniques to enable him to play several instruments "simultaneously".
Since gaining his Fine Art degree, he has been more interested in making
music than making art. For a short sample, with pictures, click
on the link below:
Rock Around the Clock
He also enjoys messing about with computers, ever since buying the
family's first computer (a Sinclair ZX81), twenty-four years ago. This
website is a d-i-y creation.
In 1971 he published a book on Management Information Systems, which
became recommended reading for students of Open University courses.
In 1982 he was overall winner of the Mensa Superbrain competition, part
of the prize being a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica, which is still
used occasionally to supplement Google.
Alan is married to Pat (also a lifelong Teessider). They have two
grown-up children, Colin and Helen, and two grandchildren, Charlie-Jack
and Carys-Mia
April 2012
TO VIEW THE GALLERIES - AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC - CLICK ON THE MENU BELOW
self portrait December 1999