I remember as a child, always painting, drawing or making something. Play, creativity and imagination seemed inextricably interwoven, and I have carried that feeling with me to the present day. Materials were never a problem - when I had no paper to make marks on, I used newspaper and every scrap of cardboard packaging in my home had a use.

On leaving school my first job was as an apprentice model-maker. The skills I learnt back then have influenced my work ever since. I moved from model-making into graphic design and currently run my own design business in Wiltshire.

But it is painting that holds the most attraction for me, and the work on display on this website uses many of the mediums and materials I have been exploring for years; painting, drawing, model-making, photography, design, print-making, and 3D construction.

I returned to college in 1992 as a mature student to undertake studies in Art Therapy and Community Arts. Since then much of my time has been committed to art projects in schools and community settings, often in collaboration with other artists.

I enjoy the mix of disciplines I work with. One day I am a graphic designer in front of the computer screen, the next I am painting in the studio, the next I am in a school working with students. Each activity feeds the other and stimulates a diverse approach to making art.

Jeff Pigott 2009

“Any creative thinker who ventures into new territory risks chaos and fragmentation… an initial state of fragmentation and the not inconsiderable anxieties attendant on it must be tolerated.” 

Anton Ehrenzweig’s* insight is a given for Jeff, whose work is characterised by a spirit of experiment and exploration of both the materials and processes of making art. There are elements of provisionality and rawness in his use of the simple, ordinary and discarded materials that are the stuff of what he makes.  Cardboard, paper, old photographs and other ephemera, bring with them their own histories with which he is able to rework and create new imagery. He has a predilection for materials that evoke notions of brokenness, decay and disintegration; fragility and transience are implicit in his work. He has been influenced by, among others, Antoni Tapies, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Rauchenberg and the Italian Arte Povera movement. Another significant influence is the Italian artist Alberto Burri who said:

“I have always been interested in making something beautiful from poor materials”.

Text by Colin Riches – artist/sculptor. March 2010

* The Hidden Order of Art, 1967