Bruer Tidman: Mastering Emotions
Green Pebble Autumn 2007 issue

The instant appeal of Brüer Tidman’s work
is his wonderful use of colour. There is no
doubt he is a very accomplished colourist
and often on a grand scale, as at the
Salthouse 07 exhibition where his golden
canvas of 8 feet by 16 feet dominated the
entrants’ view.

'I like to lay down colour with resonance;
colours that zing and cause the painting to
come to life. Colour is important to drive
mood,’ he explains one pleasant July day
at his Great Yarmouth studio. He points
to the swirling mists of yellows, reds and
blues in his painting of the circus, Ring
Boy; colours that draw the viewer into the
canvas in a similar way that Turner’s
broiling sunlight-filled skies do.

But his paintings are not conceived in the foreknowledge of what colour he will use. On that score, ‘I just pick up a pot of colour and go from there’, he explains. Indeed, most of his training was in black and white. However, this may be a bit of a simplification from a man who is very close to his emotions. His longest friend, artist Colin Self, says, ‘He uses colour to express emotions, as free association, like someone might suddenly have a crush on something – as would a designer simply select their favourite colours – and yet simultaneously use observed and local colour in different passages of the same work.’

Brüer is usually inspired by ‘people’; yet he is not moved by the simple stuff of what they are doing or what they look like. His paintings are about the harder side of life; of what they are thinking and, even closer to home, what he thinks about them....

This is only a small part of the article.
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Bruer Tidman: Mastering Emotions Green Pebble Autumn 2007 issue

Bruer Tidman: Mastering Emotions
Green Pebble Autumn 2007 issue