Birthplace: Carlisle
Location: Eden Valley, Cumbria
Art Medium: Oils
Education:
1987-88 Foundation Course in Fine Art, Carlisle
1989-92 BA (Honours) Fine Art, Exeter
After being born in 1964, Colin was raised on a farm in Brackenber Moor near Appleby in the Eden Valley. Art was his best subject at school, but it wasn’t until he was twenty-one that he realised he could make it a career. He enrolled in an art school and after graduation, he came back to Cumbria for two years. Wanting to grow more as a painter, he then moved to London to pursue his dreams.
In 1998, Colin realised that his work was selling well. In 2000, he decided to quit his part time job and focus entirely on painting. Since 1992, his work had always been narrative based, but one day he painted a seascape from his imagination. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. This was a profound moment for him because then he realised that art doesn’t have to be about meaning. In fact, it was more important that the application was beautiful.
Colin has and always will experiment, but when he first started back at the age of twenty-one, he had envisaged himself being a landscape painter. He finally got this chance when we moved to Derbyshire in 2005. During this time, he continued to show work all across the UK despite changing styles. After building a studio and a couple of years painting indoors, he knew he had to start going outside to paint.
Another six years passed while he struggled to find his way into Plein Air, trying many different approaches. Finally in 2012, he had his breakthrough which lead him to stripping his palette back and painting while standing up and using large amounts of pure oil paint. Whilst continuing to refine and adjust his working method and application, he feels happy. It has been a very long journey, but what he has learnt along the way has fed into his work. He can now play with many styles as a result.
MEMORABLE EXHIBITIONS
April-May 1987 Chequers Restaurant, Chalk Farm Road, London
February 1994 “Somewhere between preservation and destruction”, Carnegie Arts Centre, Workington, Cumbria
October 1999 “Future Landscapes” Knapp Gallery, Regent’s College, London
June 2001 “Lost Wilderness”, Blyth Gallery, Manchester
September 2003 “Great Expectations”, Camberwell, London
May 2007 “The Nature of Nature” Tregoning gallery, Derby
Sept 2009 Flannels, Leeds, Yorkshire
Feb 2011 “The Earth Beneath us” Mooch Art, Manchester
July 2012 “Albion”, GX gallery, London
June 2013 “English Landscapes”, GX gallery, London
May 2014 “En Plein Air”, GX gallery, London
June 2014 “Colin Halliday”, Alchemy gallery, Macclesfield
Oct 2014 “New work”, Tarpey gallery, Castle Donnington
April 2015 “Solo”, StJohn Street Gallery, Ashbourne
May 2015 “The Nature of Paint”, GX Gallery, London
July 2016 “The untameable Nature of Nature”, Tarpey Gallery
May 2017 “Chasing Rainbows”, GX gallery , London
*The above is not the full list of exhibitions Colin has had over the years. In total, he’s had 84 exhibitions, 44 of which were solo.
PUBLICATIONS
May 2007 Derbyshire Life, Article by Ashley Franklin
July 2008 Art of England, Article by Eduardo Sant’Anna
Oct 2009 Art of England, Article by Dr. Jonathan Vickery
Oct 2015 artsbeat, arts in Derbyshire, Article by Amanda Penman
2018 Painters Tubes, issue 7, Article by Denis Taylor