West, Ulrich

Biography

Ulrich was born in Brussels in 1937 and educated in Sussex, India, London and Scotland. After National Service in the Royal Navy, he studied Graphic Design at the Liverpool College of Art in the late Fifties. In 1972, he qualified as a teacher of special needs adults at the Bolton Institute of Technology.

Ulrich continued to teach for eight years, after which he resigned his post as Deputy Manager of an Adult Training Centre to become a freelance
artist and to bring up his daughter Emily. He has exhibited widely in the North West and has work in private collections in London, Wales, France, Canada, Germany, Japan and U.S.A. He is a member of the Sefton Guild of Artists and the Society of Graphic Fine Art. Ulrich works from his studio in Ashton-in-Makerfield.

Statement

‘My recent work is a continuing development of my interest in the evolution of the landscape due to natural and man made influences. I am fascinated by surface weathering, erosion and obsolete industrial structures and detritus but also in what may lie beneath the surface, left by our ancestors. The layering of ages, distilled in the imagination makes up much of the imagery in my work. The techniques I use; burning, scratching, wearing down and building up surfaces are an echo of this.’