THE DAWN OF PROJECT ISIS IONIST ART: Gerald Shepherd*
THE CREATION OF HIGHLY ORIGINAL ART SINCE THE SEVENTIES
PHOTO ALBUM - PROCESS ART
PHOTO ALBUM - LANDSCAPES
SCIENCE ART FUSION PLUS A NEW LANDSCAPE AND PORTRAIT TRADITION
PHOTO ALBUM - PORTRAITS

 
IONIST ART - SMALL WORKS

NEW WEB SITE OF SMALL PAINTINGS, ETC.

In an heroic attempt to fuse art and science, Shepherd has invented a new pictorial form - "process art".  The  result, is a room full of highly detailed, very puzzling pictures constructed in such a novel way that they look like the creations of some quite separate culture. 

Beatrice Phillpotts - 1990


ART WORKS


SCIENCE INSPIRED
MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART
PROCESS ART PORTRAITS 
ORIGINAL IONIST ART
IONIST ART ON PAPER

 
NATURE INSPIRED
MEDITATIVE LANDSCAPES
LARGE SCALE LANDSCAPES
MISCELLANEOUS LANDSCAPES ETC.
CONVENTIONAL PAINTINGS

 
EARLY & EXPERIMENTAL STYLES
SURREAL EXPLORATIONS
ALTERNATIVE IONISM
ENVIRONMENTAL, ACTION & CONCEPTUAL ART
SCULPTURE  & ASSEMBLAGES


WRITINGS
DAILY ART DIARY
DIARY OF PETER PANIC
ADVENTURES OF MANFRED WING
PAGANNINI PAPERS - POETRY & PROSE


INFORMATION
NEWS
EXHIBITIONS
WORK RECORDS 
REVIEWS


PROJECTS

THE ION EXCHANGE
 ART GROUPS
 THE ALCHEMIST PROJECT
PROJECT ISIS
 
SCIENCE INSPIRED GALLERIES
LANDING BIRD BEFORE TREES
CLARE IN A CHAIR
A YOUNG GIRL ENTERS A ROOM, PUTS DOWN HER GLASS AND PICKS UP A FLOWER

When I began painting I experimented with many styles.  These included surrealistic paintings, abstracts, sculptures, assemblages, environments and text based art - many of which I have continued to explore.  I also produce a wide range of conventional figurative work. 

I wanted to find a means of continuous creation in my work and in 1976 I found a style that enabled me to maximise and test my inventive ability. I began to experiment with sequential and elaborative formats that allow a systematic analysis and elaboration of a thematic image or idea.  I also began to combine images, symbols, numbers and words with controlling structures derived from science and mathematics.   With tongue in cheek I coined the term IONIST ART for this work (this is what you get if you remove express from Expressionist Art!).  I also use the more descriptive term of MEDITATIVE PROCESS ART for this very complex work.

My interest in system based art diversified in the eighties.  I began to use music forms as structures for my work and also became fascinated with merging painting with writing and theatrical ideas - setting poetry to paintings, image dramas and performance pieces, etc. Typically, the music based work consisted of a thematic statement followed by a series of variations or a development section where the initiating material is expanded and explored. 

I am also producing a series of MEDITATIVE LANDSCAPES, STILL LIFES & PORTRAITS.  This work combines  observation with the systems, image sequences and symbols developed in my other work.  The landscapes etc. attempt a more holistic representation of the natural world and the portraits attempt the characterisation of a person using colours, symbols and signs.

I have shown regularly at the Loggia Gallery in London and I have had many other exhibitions of my work.  I have paintings in private collections, public buildings and on business premises throughout England.  I showed regularly with the international Free Painters & Sculptors as well as other national and local art groups.  I have also exhibited with Elyn Carleton's "Creators" and "Innovators" groups. My work can also be found on many online galleries.

I am happy to work to commission and I will consider any project, either solo or collaborative.
 
 

The artist's work had no direct link with past modes of thought, but it seemed in my view to fall somewhere between Indian or Oriental art and the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. Painstakingly, and with great precision, most of the work was arranged in a kind of Board Game/Strip Cartoon style with numbers, arrows, animals and abstract designs pigeon-holed within various compartments.

Edward Taylor -1991


 
NATURE INSPIRED GALLERIES
GARDEN INVENTION ONE
OUCH! OR THE RELATIONSHIP OF PREDATOR TO PREY
ENTRANCE IN A GARDEN
CAT PORTRAIT

I founded the IONIST ART GROUP in 1987 to forge links between members of the artistic and scientific communities.  The Group organised regular meetings and attempted to initiate collective art-science projects.

I also organised group exhibitions for like minded artists in the Eighties using the name PROCESS ART GROUP.

I expanded my areas of interest in the early Nineties and began to create and stage events of all kinds to raise funds and campaign for charities.  Part of  this work was done under the name of ARTISTS FOR ANIMALS.

In 1994 I began a series of exhibitions under the name of MODERN WILTSHIRE ARTISTS with the aim of presenting and promoting Modern Art in my local area.
 
 

The paintings are graphic in style and execution, and personal in language. When one talks about paintings, or in this case writes about them, one seeks out comparisons in order to explain them. I hesitate to do so for these because I believe Gerald Shepherd is working out a language of his own. But just for starters let me point to hieroglyphics or ideograms, comic strips, mathematical or biological diagrams and so on.

Brian Yale - 1992

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR SMALL PORTFOLIO

ORIGINAL IONIST ART WEB SITE 

(A DIFFERENT SELECTION OF PICTURES ON DISPLAY)

Shepherd has been working out a language of his own since the 1970s.  He paints in a graphic manner infused with glowing bright colours, combining art, symbolism and science with hieroglyphics or ideograms, comic strips, mathematical and biological symbols.  It is difficult to make comparisons between him and other artists except for the mimicking of other cultures and in particular indian and aboriginal communicative painting. 

Steve Maclaurin - 2000


LINKS


CONTACT:

gerald@ionistart.com


 
ART LINKS:

SAATCHI GALLERY


 
ONLINE GALLERIES 
WHICH HAVE EXAMPLES OF MY WORK:

AARTI

APOB ONLINE GALLERIES

SAATCHI GALLERY

MOSAIC GLOBE

ARTSHOLE

EXPRESS ART GALLERY

ARTGALLERY.CO.UK

DEVIANT ART

ARTMAJEUR

ART KEY

PAINTINGS I LOVE

EXIT 2000


 
ONLINE DIRECTORIES:

ARTISTPORTFOLIO.NET

ARTNET DIRECTORY

WOBBLYBRIDGE

BRITISH ARTS


 
 ARTISTS:

KEN PALMER
PAUL MALONE
ROY RASMUSSEN

 
GALLERY - QUICK LINKS
PLEASE CLICK ON THE NUMBERS BELOW FOR INDIVIDUAL GALLERIES
PROCESS ART
1 2 3 4 5
6
7
LANDSCAPES
1 2
3
SURREAL ART
1
2
PORTRAITS
1 2 3 4
5
LARGE LANDSCAPES
1
ALTERNATIVE ART
1
2
IONIST ART
1 2
3
OTHER LANDSCAPES
1 2 3
4
CONCEPTUAL ART
1
DRAWINGS
1 2
CONVENTIONAL
1
SCULPTURE ETC.
1  

 
PSEUDONYMS GALLERIES
WALKING ON WATER
MAN AND CHILD
CHEMISTRY CAME FROM THE EAST
I am profoundly interested in all the sciences, especially physics and chemistry.  I am also passionate about geology, astronomy, archeology, history and geography. 

I have a more practical interest in all aspects of Natural History - including botany, zoology, palaeontology, ecology and horticulture, particularly in terms of conservation. I work on a voluntary basis for the Wiltshire Wildlife Conservation Volunteers and I am a member of several local Wildlife Trusts.  I am also a Friend of the RSPCA.

I currently live and work in Andover with my wife, June; dog, Poppy; cats, Bugsy, Smudge and Isis; rabbit, Hieronymous (Sandy); guinea pig, Peppa and various other pets.



I HAVE EXTENSIVE GALLERIES (MORE THAN 800 WORKS) ON WINDOWS LIVE - PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW:


WINDOWS LIVE PHOTO ALBUM - PROCESS ART
WINDOWS LIVE PHOTO ALBUM - LANDSCAPES
WINDOWS LIVE PHOTO ALBUM - PORTRAITS

I ALSO HAVE GALLERIES ON FACEBOOK AND MY SPACE PLEASE LOOK ME UP 
 
 

*Gerald Shepherd and/or Gerry Shepherd - aka The Country Boy Collective
(or "The Circe Brotherhood")

alias Wing, Simple Simon, "Rabbit", Paul Stuart Whitty/Alan Hendricks and Peter Panic (Petronella Pan)

Sole member of The Old and Uptight Artist Club
(and lead guitarist in an imaginary  rock group  called "The Unknown")

FRIENDS OF PETER PANIC

Small portraits of the artist's friends

Gerald Shepherd, an idiosyncratic artist concerned with the fusion of art and science which he called “Process Art”.  His compositions contained a mass of ideograms which were contained within waves and stripes related to some referential image within the picture plane.  His paintings were outside the scope of what is normally understood as painting.  In an aesthetic sense they were beautiful, and most people could only see them in that way, for they required reading, and yet remained mysteries.

Roy Rasmussen

SELECTED WORKS
- PROCESS ART
 
SELECTED WORKS - LANDSCAPES
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR LOOKING AT MY WEB SITE! 
SELECTED WORKS - PORTRAITS
AMORPHOUS HEAD
GERALD SHEPHERD 2009

Please contact me at: gerald@ionistart.com