KEVIN SINNOTT (WELSH B.1947) HECTIC DAYS, 1988-9 Oil on canvas 173cm x 144.5cm (68in x 57in) Note: Kevin Sinnott, born 1947 in South Wales, is a contemporary Welsh artist with an international reputation. He trained at Cardiff College of Art and Design (1967-68) and Gloucestershire College of Art and Design (1968-1971) before attending the Royal College of Art, London from 1971-1974. During his time as a student, Sinnott realised the method of directly drawing exactly what was in front of his eyes onto a large canvas. He would return to this technique after a brief experimentation with Modernism, where his works move in and out of abstraction. Sinnott's illustrative, imaginative works from the 1980s are a product of his reaction against the Modernist emphasis on form over content. Sinnott remained in London throughout the 1970s and 80s, exhibiting regularly in leading London galleries, major galleries in the USA and across mainland Europe. Around 1983, he returned to painting in oils and began improvising with the medium, working out ideas directly onto canvas. With no intended subject matter, more powerful images began to emerge. His works from this time start to echo his fascination with memory, emotion, and experience, particularly within human relationships. Hectic Days is one of the more experimental examples of Sinnott's heavily figurative works. The fluid interconnectedness of the figures, and the work's complex composition, hint at the artist's curiosity in the boundaries between real and imaginary. Painted in 1988, this painting is a precursor to Sinnott's larger figurative pieces like his Turkish Bath series and the internationally acclaimed Running away with the Hairdresser. Sinnott returned to Wales and quickly established himself at the forefront of modern-day Welsh painting. The influence and history of the landscape is strongly felt in his more recent history paintings, which focus on historical events and life in the towns and valleys of South Wales. In 2007, he was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy and today his work is part of private and corporate collections worldwide.