About
Jose Escofet
Having experimented in the past with different media including Pumice, Latex and Marble dust, I evolved through expressionism and abstraction and eventually returned to figurative painting. I then settled some 20 years ago on a love for Still-Life and the technical demands of that genre, having always admired the Dutch and Spanish Schools of Still- Life painting.
This very soon led me into the world of nature and plants. There was a move away from the staged Still Life. I became, and still am, totally fascinated and absorbed by the inexhaustible variety of Flora and Fauna and wanted to capture this in paintings that I see as intimate small landscapes. I find the microcosm in nature totally absorbing and beautiful in an ‘other worldly’ and magical way and, without doubt, endlessly inspiring. This connection with nature has proved for me an inspiration that has lasted many years and produced many exhibitions of work. I was depicting plants set within small intimate landscapes – where the ground, the insects and the background gain equal weight in the composition.
Lately I have been wanting to move the work from a depictional approach to a more subjective and imaginary approach that best conveys my personal and emotional involvement with nature; to try to emphasize the more fantastical and magical aspects of it which I see more and more. Flowers are still at the core of my paintings but different elements are incorporated as a way of expressing my vision of nature as a magical realm. I play with proportions and create strange morphings of plants and creatures. I feel my engagement with plants is so deep now that I want to express a personal view of them, in a sense to depict what the eye cannot see. There is a consciously strong fantastic and surreal feel to my current work which I continue to develop. I am trying to express my belief that in nature we are all interconnected and of equal importance – be it a plant, an insect or a human being.
This is a very intimate journey. I feel I have just arrived at the artistic expression I have long been searching for and feel very excited to have taken this turn.
BIOGRAPHY
1930 Born in Terrassa (Province of Barcelona), Spain
1952 Moved to Barcelona and worked for the next 25 years as a free lance graphic artist, while developing his paintings in his studio at home
1979 Moved to England with his English wife and 3 children where he currently lives
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 / 2014 José Escofet & Miriam Escofet, John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh
2010 / 2011 Retrospective Exhibition at Villa Bertelli, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
2007 Albemarle Gallery (Summer Group Exhibition), London
2005 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, USA
2004 Hollis Taggart Galleries / O. Kelley Anderson Fine Arts, New York
2001 Hollis Taggart Galleries / O. Kelley Anderson Fine Arts, New York
1998 O. Kelley Anderson Fine Arts / Jensen Fine Arts, New York
1997 O. Kelley Anderson Fine Arts / Jensen Fine Arts, New York
1994 Ebury Galleries, London
1994 Saanen Gallery, Gstaad, Switzerland
1990 Mallett’s of Bond Street, London
1989 Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
1988 Mallett’s of Bond Street, London
1987 Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London
1987 Garrick C. Stephenson, New York
1987 Janis Aldridge Gallery, Nantucket
1987 Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London