Interior with Boiler

John GRAY studied art at Sutton, Cheam, Guildford and Hull, during which time he became a regular exhibitor in the Ferens' annual Winter Exhibitions. His polished and realistic images are very carefully planned and considered, in contrast to the spontaneous nature of much abstract painting. The artist has stated that, 'My work is to do with an exploration of the formal problems of painting, such as colour/space and surface/illusion, as well as painting an object, and certain problems to do with edges of the canvas.' Gray works from photographs, usually set up by him, and says that, 'the subject of the painting is the photograph. The subject of the photograph is objects and figures.' In Interior with Boiler, the subject of the painting is taken from an illustration in The Readers Digest D.I.Y. manual, Book 2, Projects, Sheet 58, 'Improving a Fireplace'. He re-orders the photographic information into a disciplined and formal unity on the canvas, resulting in the clear and precise image seen here.