About

Frank Ferrie was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art. Early experiments in painting were dominated by industrial landscapes and the decline of Clydeside shipbuilding. That interest in the local environment remains strong, however, his approach changed after a series of visits to New York from 1995 to 1999. 'Before NY, I never appreciated the potential of abstraction. I couldn't see how it could be connected with everyday life, how it could be relevant.'

'The bones of it was that abstracting allowed you to incorporate feelings and memories (as well as observations) and I've been fascinated ever since by that.' From 1999 to 2001, Ferrie studied life drawing in Florence and believes this was also an extremely important influence:

'I had to get past the tendency to demonstrate technical ability - to almost drop it completely. It took more than a year of almost blind experiment - of seemingly useless searching before something that could be loosely called cohesive surfaced.'

'Concentrating on drawing and painting in Florence gave me the opportunity to get to grips with the basics; with connections between looking in the present and using longer term experiences, physical and psychological. That sounds big, but sometimes it came together. Making paintings and drawings, often from random, discarded and disorganised objects there, in that otherwise strictly controlled environment, somehow opened up the possibilities.'

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