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Ilric Shetland studied both at Goldsmith’s College of Art and at Hornsey College of Art. He has been undertaking one-man exhibitions in the UK and in Europe since 1972. His iconic seascapes stem from being read the Cruel Sea as a boy by his father: someone who manned a destroyer in the Atlantic during the Second World War.
“As an artist I want to paint something which is emblematic, which would carry a great deal of meaning in a relatively simple and `universal` way; the sea does this. The sea was ideal, figurative, but at the same time like a Rothko. I want my sea paintings to act with full, unmediated force – to move, to make people stop for a moment. To do this all concessions to safety, even the sky, must be got rid of or unclear; the sky is a concession which I do not always make in these paintings.
“My sea paintings are autobiographical, but also reach beyond that to a sense of the incomprehensible. Now I live near to the Atlantic, in Cornwall, I see for myself its compelling force and power.”9