"Edward Povey’s paintings are complicated deceits of human realism. He explores the human experience of mortality, sexuality, regret and longing, although he is opposed to the idea of using obvious narratives in paintings, because he insists that paintings are visual rather than literary.

The title BLESSURE is Dutch for injury. The bruise on the arm of the figure is a small gesture towards the corporeal state of human beings, and the figure is characteristically vulnerable and aged by life. We are presented with a scene of precariousness: a house of cards standing in the presence of its enemy, the fan; a spilled cup and saucer of tea, teeters on the edge of a table. Every texture is worked to convey its history and the nature of its fabric, even though Povey does not regard himself as a traditional Realist. As with all Povey works of this period, the painting is founded in a Verdaccio palette borrowed from Raphael’s altarpiece flesh (1483-1520), onto which he constructs a chord of colour: the lucid melody of the lemons floating across the supporting shirt and tea colour, and all founded in the rhythm of the undulating grey and plain chocolate base. It is a very considered apparatus, but it touches the chaos of human internal life." - Edward Povey

Edward Povey was born in 1951 in London, England, growing up as an only child, painting obsessively and writing prose and music. He studied drawing at Eastbourne College for Art and Design, and then psychology and painting at The University of Wales. He became known as a mural painter in his twenties and was followed by the BBC through the making of 25 murals up to six stories in height, a period that he later came to regard as his apprenticeship.

He moved his studio to the Caribbean island of Grenada to concentrate on deepening his canvas painting for seven years, during which time, his works began finding their way into private collections in the United States. He studied colour and composition with established artists such as the Danish architectural abstractionist Paul Klose, the American colourist Malcolm T. Liepke, and the Belgian art dealer Jan de Maere. By 1991, he was showing in John Whitney Payson’s New York gallery beside 20th Century American masters, and other galleries spanning seven countries over the coming three decades.

In 1991 The University of Wales commissioned Edward Povey to create a major 20 x 40-foot painting for a chamber concert hall in Wales, for which he designed a dense narrative work comprising seven panels framed by trompe-l'œil stonework. By the year 2000, Povey’s work was acquired by prominent institutions including The National Museum of Wales; MOMA Wales; the National Library of Wales; the Glynn Vivien Art Museum; the Anglesey Museum Art Collection and numerous corporate art collections, and in 2018 The British Library documented his career for the British nation.

Povey was unusually sensitive and empathic child; prone to fainting. Personal experiences steeped in adventure - and at times tumultuous, he has had three marriages through two wars, in Israel and in the Caribbean; thus, it is no coincidence that he is preoccupied with the human experience. We follow a clear arc through his paintings, from perspectives on society in his 1970s’ murals, through family psychology and symbolism in his works of the 1990s, then culminating with insights into individual human vulnerability and mortality in his current paintings.

He lives and works in Devon, England, and still devotes up to a hundred hours a week to his work.

Modelling courtesy Canadian poet Claire Davis.