Shane Record
Shane Record’s gallery The Print Room has been in existence
only coming up for two years. Although Shane avers to being mainly self-taught,
he admits that he studied art at school till A level. Convinced, however, that
art might not permit him to earn a living, he went to University to study
Management, soon converting to French and Sociology. His first choice, however,
stood him in good stead as he would then obtain a part-time research post in
Management, which is what he was doing when the Creative Quarter burst into his
consciousness. Throughout, from school on, Shane had been painting, involving
himself too with other creative activities such as writing and acting,
performing in cabaret and even making hand-made glasses. Of this latter activity
Shane admits “I used to go round wearing weighty thick wooden spectacles: they
weren’t to everybody’s taste.” On the day I met him in his gallery, Shane’s
glasses were a rather trendy black and white affair!
For Shane, having the Print Room in the Old High Street has been a dream come
true. He had never thought it would be possible to work at practising what he
most liked doing: painting. But now if you see Shane’s work, you will recognise
it immediately. The subjects: that red bus stop on the Stade, which Shane has
painted “in shades of blue, when it is raining slightly, when it is very rainy,
at dawn, dusk and at night.” as he says “I don’t run out of subjects, I am
always thinking about where the sun rises and sets, and you can do the same
subjects at so many different times and under so many different weather
conditions.” And that style, the exuberant, unstinting and luxurious use of
thick paint, vibrant colour. “Like Monet’s haystack,” I quip. We laugh. “And I
never tire”, he adds.
The work is becoming known and for birthdays and
anniversaries people come in to pick up a print or a painting. “I get just
enough work but it is growing and I plan to have a larger gallery in the spring
or summer. In the early days I had to work all the time. But the other thing I
am pleased about is I’m connected with so many different people.” Quite a varied
public now enters the gallery, including people who may not have been in a
gallery in the past. “I try and make it relaxed and friendly so people don‘t
feel they‘re going into a gallery, they can come and look at the work,” keeping
the venue informal.
Shane is particularly committed to his links with the Art Therapy Unit in Church
Street, where young people from all over Shepway are referred. “It is a
non-direct form of counselling. I like to do it and it demonstrates the impact
the arts and ideas can have on a community.”
Shane’s art is available in a wide variety of sizes and media, paint or print.
And if you want to send a postcard of Folkestone to any of your friends around
the country or abroad, there are also postcards which show images of Folkestone
which are, let’s say it, iconic.
Diana Crampton
Article from Go Folkestone Newsletter March 2007
