About Terry Ilott

Since I was a student the predominant themes of my paintings have reflected my long-term interest in Science-Fiction, Astronomy and Astronautics. My paintings do not illustrate particular Science-Fiction narratives, but simply share the concern of Science-Fiction with putting human existence into some sort of perspective in Space and Time. I also see my work as being, in some sense, religious, or rather, spiritual and a vehicle for deriving personal, symbolic and spiritual sense from 20th Century events and technology.

The paintings are not only concerned with a conscious attempt to make symbolic statements but also with a desire to create a disturbing, questioning and mysterious mood, the exact meaning of which is elusive.

The biggest influences on my work have been Science-Fiction in Literature and Film, the symbolist painters, early Italian religious painting, the work of Caspar David Friedrich and Samuel Palmer and the songs of Bob Dylan.

Since retiring from teaching at UWCN, I find that, although my inspiration for painting remains the same, my methods and approach have changed somewhat. The pictures are now far less pre-conceived and planned and make more use of painterly qualities and accident.

I come to see myself increasingly as a romantic painter of symbolic or allegorical landscapes – very much in the vein of Caspar David Friedrich, whose work I admire more and more. In a society over-loaded with so many moving and even interactive images, I find that there is something especially magical and quietly compelling about the painted picture.

I hope that the information on this site will help you to appreciate the paintings but, more importantly, I hope the paintings speak for themselves.