THE DAWN OF PROJECT ISIS IONIST ART: Gerald Shepherd
THE CREATION OF HIGHLY ORIGINAL ART SINCE THE SEVENTIES

 
IONIST ART MARKET

SMALL PAINTINGS, PRINTS ETC.

In an heroic attempt to fuse art and science, Shepherd has invented a new pictorial form - "process art".  The  result, is a room full of highly detailed, very puzzling pictures constructed in such a novel way that they look like the creations of some quite separate culture. 

Beatrice Phillpotts - 1990


ART WORKS


SCIENCE INSPIRED
MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART
PROCESS ART PORTRAITS 
IONOSCAPES
ALTERNATIVE IONISM

 
NATURE INSPIRED
MEDITATIVE LANDSCAPES
MEDITATIVE FIELD PAINTINGS
MISCELLANEOUS PAINTINGS
CONVENTIONAL PAINTINGS

 
IONIST ART - GRAPHIC WORK
ORIGINAL IONIST ART
NEW IONIST ART
IONIST ART ON PAPER
ILLUSTRATIONS

 
EARLY & EXPERIMENTAL WORK
SURREAL EXPLORATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL, ACTION & CONCEPTUAL ART
SCULPTURE  & ASSEMBLAGES
WORKS ON PAPER


WRITINGS
DAILY ART DIARY
DIARY OF PETER PANIC
ADVENTURES OF MANFRED WING
IONIST ART NEWSLETTER


INFORMATION
STATEMENT
EXHIBITIONS
WORK RECORDS 
REVIEWS


PROJECTS

THE ION EXCHANGE
 ART GROUPS
 THE ALCHEMIST PROJECT
 AN IMPRISONED VOICE
 
LANDING BIRD BEFORE TREES
CLARE IN A CHAIR
RAGE WHERE RIVERS CROSS
MAN AND CHILD

INTRODUCTION

When I began painting I experimented with many styles.  These included surrealistic paintings, abstracts, sculptures, assemblages, environments and text based art - many of which I have continued to explore.  I also produce a wide range of conventional figurative work. 

I wanted to find a means of continuous creation in my work and in 1976 I found a style that enabled me to maximise and test my inventive ability. I began to experiment with sequential and elaborative formats that allow a systematic analysis and elaboration of a thematic image or idea.  I also began to combine images, symbols, numbers and words with controlling structures derived from science and mathematics.   With tongue in cheek I coined the term IONIST ART for this work (this is what you get if you remove express from Expressionist Art!).  I also use the more descriptive term of MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART for this very complex work.

My interest in system based art diversified in the eighties.  I began to use music forms as structures for my work and also became fascinated with merging painting with writing and theatrical ideas - setting poetry to paintings, image dramas and performance pieces, etc. Typically, the music based work consisted of a thematic statement followed by a series of variations or a development section where the initiating material is expanded and explored. 

I am also producing a series of MEDITATIVE LANDSCAPES, STILL LIFES & PORTRAITS.  This work combines  observation with the systems, image sequences and symbols developed in my other work.  The landscapes etc. attempt a more holistic representation of the natural world and the portraits attempt the characterisation of a person using colours, symbols and signs.

I have shown regularly at the Loggia Gallery in London and I have had many other exhibitions of my work.  I have paintings in private collections, public buildings and on business premises throughout England.  I show regularly with the international Free Painters & Sculptors as well as other national and local art groups.  I have also exhibited with Elyn Carleton's "Creators" and "Innovators" groups. My work can also be found on many online galleries.

I am happy to work to commission and I will consider any project, either solo or collaborative.
 
 

The artist's work had no direct link with past modes of thought, but it seemed in my view to fall somewhere between Indian or Oriental art and the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. Painstakingly, and with great precision, most of the work was arranged in a kind of Board Game/Strip Cartoon style with numbers, arrows, animals and abstract designs pigeon-holed within various compartments.

Edward Taylor -1991


 
GARDEN INVENTION ONE
OUCH! OR THE RELATIONSHIP OF PREDATOR TO PREY
ENTRANCE IN A GARDEN
CAT PORTRAIT

I continue to produce work in many other styles, often using pseudonyms.  I intermittently produce work in my pre Ionist styles such as surrealism and abstract art.  I have also returned recently to the original Ionist techniques of the early Eighties.
 
 

The paintings are graphic in style and execution, and personal in language. When one talks about paintings, or in this case writes about them, one seeks out comparisons in order to explain them. I hesitate to do so for these because I believe Gerald Shepherd is working out a language of his own. But just for starters let me point to hieroglyphics or ideograms, comic strips, mathematical or biological diagrams and so on.

Brian Yale - 1992


 
TRANSMUTATIONS ONE
A YOUNG GIRL ENTERS A ROOM, PUTS DOWN HER GLASS AND PICKS UP A FLOWER

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR SELECTED PORTFOLIO

ORIGINAL IONIST ART WEB SITE 

(THIS SITE HAS MORE PICTURES ON DISPLAY)

Shepherd has been working out a language of his own since the 1970s.  He paints in a graphic manner infused with glowing bright colours, combining art, symbolism and science with hieroglyphics or ideograms, comic strips, mathematical and biological symbols.  It is difficult to make comparisons between him and other artists except for the mimicking of other cultures and in particular indian and aboriginal communicative painting. 

Steve Maclaurin - 2000


LINKS


ART LINKS:

SAATCHI GALLERY


 
ONLINE GALLERIES:

AARTI

APOB ONLINE GALLERIES

SAATCHI GALLERY

MOSAIC GLOBE

ARTSHOLE

EXPRESS ART GALLERY


 
ONLINE DIRECTORIES:

ARTISTPORTFOLIO.NET

ARTNET DIRECTORY

WOBBLYBRIDGE

BRITISH ARTS


 
 ARTISTS:

KEN PALMER
PAUL MALONE
ROY RASMUSSEN

 
WALKING ON WATER
CHEMISTRY CAME FROM THE EAST

I founded the IONIST ART GROUP in 1987 to meet like minded artists and to make contact with members of the scientific community.  The Group provided a means of communication between the various disciplines and also attempted to initiate collective art-science projects.

I also organised group exhibitions for like minded artists in the Eighties using the name PROCESS ART GROUP.

I expanded my areas of interest in the early Nineties and began to create and stage events of all kinds to raise funds and campaign for charities.  Part of  this work was done under the name of ARTISTS FOR ANIMALS. 

In 1994 I began a series of exhibitions under the name of MODERN WILTSHIRE ARTISTS with the aim of presenting and promoting Modern Art in my local area.

FRIENDS OF PETER PANIC
Small portraits of the artist's friends
I am profoundly interested in all the sciences, especially physics and chemistry.  I am also passionate about geology, astronomy, archeology, history and geography. 

I have a more practical interest in all aspects of Natural History - including botany, zoology, palaeontology, ecology and horticulture, particularly in terms of conservation. I work on a voluntary basis for the Wiltshire Wildlife Conservation Volunteers and I am a member of several local Wildlife Trusts.  I am also a Friend of the RSPCA.

I currently live and work in Andover with my wife, June; dog, Poppy; cats, Bugsy, Smudge and Isis; rabbit, Hieronymous (Sandy); guinea pigs, Ernst and Peppa and various other pets.

I ALSO HAVE GALLERIES ON FACEBOOK, MY SPACE AND WINDOWS LIVE - 
PLEASE LOOK ME UP.
ORIGINAL IONIST ART GROUP SITE

(THIS SITE HAS PICTURES BY ME AND OTHERS)

Gerald Shepherd, an idiosyncratic artist concerned with the fusion of art and science which he called “Process Art”.  His compositions contained a mass of ideograms which were contained within waves and stripes related to some referential image within the picture plane.  His paintings were outside the scope of what is normally understood as painting.  In an aesthetic sense they were beautiful, and most people could only see them in that way, for they required reading, and yet remained mysteries.

Roy Rasmussen

 
AMORPHOUS HEAD
GERALD SHEPHERD 2009