Dennis Creffield
Brighton - Birds In Sussex Square, 1968
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 in / 63.5 x 76 cm
Signed with initials and dated 'DC1968' (lower right); signed twice, inscribed and dated 'DENNIS CREFFIELD/BRIGHTON-BIRDS IN SUSSEX SQUARE 1968/Dennis Creffield' (on the reverse)
This Dennis Creffield, titled Birds in Sussex Square, is one of the first oils Dennis produced on moving to Brighton in 1968. His relocation from Leeds after his tenure as...
This Dennis Creffield, titled Birds in Sussex
Square, is one of the first oils Dennis produced on moving to Brighton in
1968. His relocation from Leeds after his tenure as a Gregory Fellow came to a
close proved to be a pivotal moment in the artist’s life. After a period living
in the ‘dourness and grandeur’ of London and Leeds, spirit of Brighton unlocked
a newfound freedom in Dennis’s work, unlocking his inner colourist and making
his painting more expressive and free. The town itself appealed greatly to Creffield,
who noted (in an interview at the time) that it “was still a fine, seedy,
romantic place to dwell. This had to do partly with the light which was
positively Mediterranean, and partly with the town’s climate of truancy. It was
still not a spot to visit with the wife and kiddies but rather with a secret
sweetheart.” Creffield’s landscape and figurative paintings, completed during his
first dozen years in Brighton, are arguably his least well-known works, but rank as some of his most accomplished.
Square, is one of the first oils Dennis produced on moving to Brighton in
1968. His relocation from Leeds after his tenure as a Gregory Fellow came to a
close proved to be a pivotal moment in the artist’s life. After a period living
in the ‘dourness and grandeur’ of London and Leeds, spirit of Brighton unlocked
a newfound freedom in Dennis’s work, unlocking his inner colourist and making
his painting more expressive and free. The town itself appealed greatly to Creffield,
who noted (in an interview at the time) that it “was still a fine, seedy,
romantic place to dwell. This had to do partly with the light which was
positively Mediterranean, and partly with the town’s climate of truancy. It was
still not a spot to visit with the wife and kiddies but rather with a secret
sweetheart.” Creffield’s landscape and figurative paintings, completed during his
first dozen years in Brighton, are arguably his least well-known works, but rank as some of his most accomplished.