Terry Wood - 2018

Terry grew up in Potters Bar and studied at the St Albans School of Art; for a number of years he worked as a paste-up artist in the commercial art sector, learning the publishing page-layout process ‘on the job’. ‘After about four years of the paste-up job I knew I needed to try to do something else with my life and applied for a class in fine art,’ he says. Instead, he was encouraged to take a course in two-dimensional art and succeeded in graduating with a degree in the subject.
‘I wasn’t sure, even then, if I had what it takes to be a full-time artist,’ Wood explains. ‘So I got a job as a postman – which I did for the next 15 years.’ He didn’t give up on art however and the post round gave him time in the afternoons to paint.

Wood has now retired and with the support of his wife Janet is pursuing his first love of painting. He takes inspiration from the moment: ‘Something that catches my eye that I can use as a starting point.’ He often sketches his subjects but also captures them with a digital camera, although ‘I don’t paint slavishly from the photographic image’, he explains. ‘I prefer my pictures to take on a life of their own.’

Wood has a love of colour and this has led him away from using oil paints to using acrylics instead. ‘There are some amazing colours available in acrylics. I also like to play with colour, but I’m quite impatient too. Oils take such a long time to dry. With acrylics, if you make a mistake you only have to wait about 10 minutes before you can paint over it.’

Nonetheless, his portfolio of places is extremely diverse, from scenes of the French Riviera to a rainy day in St Albans. His landscapes of poppy fields, bluebell-laden woodlands and hilltop Tuscan houses have sold well, especially considering he has exhibited only fairly locally thus far, including at Luton Hoo Walled Garden, Cambridge Artspace, Hitchin Museum and Art Gallery and at a St Albans Art Society exhibition, as well as at his home for Herts Open Studios.