Gerry Baptist

Gerry Baptist's paintings convey an immediate frisson; he possesses a natural talent for composition and creates landscape and figure studies in vibrant colour. His paintings are startling in their effectiveness, having a clarity, vivaciousness and powerful vision. Fauvist influences combined with impressions of travel in Southern Europe form the definitive Baptist genre. Inherent in his work is the heat of the sun and the warm breath of the Sirocco. Life, colour and excitement pour out of his work with a cheerful brilliance. Born in Lahore in 1935 of British parents, Gerry Baptist studied painting and graphics at the London College of Printing and Graphic Art, with the painters Gerard Rose, Ruskin Spear and John Ward. He worked for a number of years as an art director at advertising agencies in England and Germany, whilst still continuing to paint. Although Gerry Baptist was attracted to abstracts over a very long period, he has since returned to the more traditional subjects of the artist; landscapes and figures. He has developed a wide range of skills using a variety of media, but painting has always remained his passion. Perhaps in his painting there is an unconscious link with his early years in India, as he loves working in the warm Mediterranean climate using strong sensual colours which capture the intensity of light found there.