Norman Parker was born in Leicester in 1935. After attending Monkton Combe School, he read Natural Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. From 1963 until the ‘90s, he taught biology at Millfield School in Street, Somerset, England.
Norman has had no formal training since art lessons at school as a boy, but has been painting, both as an amateur and semi-professionally for over 50 years. He describes his work as; ‘neo-Surrealism; surrealist imagery but without the Surrealist ideology. I like exploring the marvellous and irrational; in finding beauty in strange things. So, for me, the image is more important than the surface of the paint. Some of the objects or situations in the paintings are imaginary; but imaginary things are not unreal, they are just a different sort of ‘real’. ’
Exhibitions:
1970s – Three Local Exhibitions (Street and Surrounding Area)
1974/75 – Clifton Arts Club exhibition
1980 – Obelisk Gallery, London
1992 – Retrospective at the Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
1997 – Atrium Gallery, Whiteley’s, London
2002 – One-man-show at the Malvern Theatres (Cowleigh Gallery) Malvern
2003 – Several months on the walls of Hurst House Restaurant, Laugharne, West Wales
2004 – The Loft, Yeovil; part of exhibition for Somerset Art Week
2005 – ‘43 Views of the Tor’ – Exhibition of paintings at the Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury
Norman’s work has also been used for illustrations in various art books and text books and he has enjoyed painting the ‘odd’ commission.
