ALAN DODD was born in Kent in 1942. He attended Ashford Grammar School, Maidstone College of Art (where David Hockney was one of his teachers) and then the Painting School at the Royal Academy. By the 1970s he was painting murals : five large architectural capricci for the Painted Room at the Victoria & Albert Museum, architectural panels after Piranesi for Alexandra Palace in 1987, the trompe l’oeil decoration on the Vardy staircase at Spencer House and the Pompeiian ceiling decoration in the New Picture Room at Sir John Soane’s Museum.
This is his flat above a shop in north London, where a fine carpet of London dust has patinated the walls and paintwork and a clutter of artist’s materials has colonized almost every surface.
A few paintings from his ‘Magic Realism’ phase are hanging about on the stairs. He designed the Millennium Cross, a memorial to Cardinal Hume, set up outside Westminster Cathedral in October 2001. This is one of his masterpieces, another is this painting of Fonthill Abbey done in 1974, which so far, he refuses to sell. www.alandodd.co.uk
Fonthill Abbey, Alan Dodd ( after the Cattermole print)
[All images : copyright bibleofbritishtaste.com / Alan Dodd ]
I saw an article on you? while reading a magazine and wondered if you are the same Alan Dodd who taught briefly with myself and Annette Meech at Walthamstowe Poly that was its probably a university now. We used to have supper together before taking on night classes. Annette is now in France and I went on to work in TV and Theatre. Good to see you are still working sorry if this is pathetic. Best wishes Joan
We last spoke in SW7 just before Christmas.
Good to see your London interior and some of your work. Like the chair with the turns.
Hoping you’ll get in touch about your October anniversary event.