Artist’s statement
At the age of 11, my parents gave me two life-changing gifts: a decent bike (a red Claud Butler) and oil paints. The bike gave me freedom to venture out into the world and the paints to speak my truth. My life has changed in many wonderful ways since then, but my heart and soul’s desire to ride bikes and share my voice through paint remains the same.
I paint in a range of styles - representational for sure, figurative and landscape, but I also love to move in and out of deeper abstraction. We speak in different voices and I can't help but paint in different ones, and often have representational and fully abstracted works on the go at the same time.
About the artist
Ed Hughes was born in Liverpool, England in 1956. He emigrated to Bella Bella BC at the age of 24 and now lives and paints in Victoria, Lekwungen territories and on Saltspring Island, Tsawout territories, BC. He works primarily in oil on canvas but uses a wide range of media and supports, painting with a pensive edge, often using surrealism to engage and challenge. That approach began in childhood, in response to the works of Magritte and Dali. With age, Ed’s artist-heroes have shifted to Matisse, Diebenkorn and Colville and he now tries to leave as much "space" as possible for the viewer.
Ed began painting with oils at the age of 11 and never stopped. For the past eight years, he’s been able to work virtually full time in the studio. His other career: medical researcher, helping women and men deal with fertility issues. Ed continued to paint through those years and even included visual art as therapy for patients. With intermittent formal art training along the way, he has learned most from mentorships and a great deal of trial and error. The radical beauty of British Columbia is now the charge and stimulus for Ed’s work, for which his is eternally grateful.
CV
In 2021, Ed was a Salt Spring National Art Prize finalist and in 2023, a SSNAP Parallel Show finalist. Over the past 50 years, he has exhibited in dozens of group shows and the occasional solo one, in venues from Liverpool, England to Ganges, BC.