JOHN DUFFIN Thames West - from Hungerford Bridge, Acrylic on Paper, 10.5 x 60cm

London Panorama - Greenwich Observatory Dusk, Oil, 30 x 100cm

Thames East - from Hungerford Bridge, Acrylic on Paper, 10.5 x 60cm

Front Cover: The Coach & Horses - Soho, Oil, 76 x 51cm John Duffin 2018

CATTO GALLERY

100 Heath Street • Hampstead • London NW3 1DP Tel: +44 (0)20 7435 6660 • [email protected] 3 John Duffin arrived at my etching class at the Central School of Art in Bloomsbury in the 1980s. By that time he had already worked for four years as a ships draughtsman at the famous submarine shipyards of Barrow in Furness followed by a further four years at Goldsmiths College, a hotbed of enterprise and home to the emerging group known as the Y.B.A.s or young British Artists.

Essentially a painter he had identified in himself a desire to etch. The desire to etch is, as an early tutor of mine, Julian Trevelyan RA, insisted, a kind of addiction.

It takes one to know one, and over the centuries Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, Hockney and many, many others have embraced etching with a compulsive passion, reveling in its freedoms and parameters, as well as its poetic resonances. John Duffin is of that ilk, a true etching addict.

A man with a limitless work ethic, John instinctively understood what etching could achieve that no other medium could. A voracious appetite for learning and enjoying hands on skills and influences, an engaging optimism coupled with enormous energy are fundamental to his being.

Over the last three decades I have watched with great interest as he has developed into one of the foremost etchers of his generation. As an artist he has always moved between painting and etching, a necessary symbiosis. Painting and etching feed off each other and, as Edward Hopper another compulsive depicter of cityscapes, said:

“after I took up etching my paintings seemed to crystalise.”

I think John will agree with me that it also works in the other direction.

It is good and informative therefore to see paintings and etchings together in this exhibition. It is also good to know that there is more, much more, to come in the future.

Norman Ackroyd RA RE London 2018

London Lights - Tottenham Court Road, Oil,100 x 30cm Greenwich Waterfront, Oil, 76 x 122cm

5 London Vista - Battersea, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Vista - from Woolwich, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Vista - Parliament Hill, Oil, 20 x 50cm 6 London Vista - Hampstead Tube Station, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Vista - Greenwich Observatory, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Vista - South Bank, Oil, 20 x 50cm 7 Kings Cross Rain Etching, 30 x 25 cm Arrival Alone - King's Cross St Pancras Station Etching 38 x 25cm

Midnight Train - Paddington Station Etching, 38 x 25cm Evening Train - Marylebone Station Etching, 38 x 25cm 8 Night Train Rain - King's Cross St Pancras Station, Oil, 30 x 25cm

9 10 London Lights - Charing Cross, Oil, 100 x 30cm Hoover Building - Dusk, Oil, 51 x 61cm

Hoover Building Etching, 41 x 61cm 11 Thames West, Oil, 76 x 122cm

12 Thames East, Oil, 76 x 122cm Thames Bridges - Day’s End, Oil, 61 x 51cm

13 The French House - Soho, Oil, 76 x 51cm

14 Greenwich, Oil, 30 x 76cm

London Vista - South Bank Waterfront, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Panorama - Elephant & Castle 2, 30 x 100cm 15 Belsize Park Tube Station, Oil, 15 x 21cm

The Forum - Kentish Town, Oil, 15 x 21cm

16 Isokon Building Night - Hampstead, Oil, 15 x 21cm Hampstead Tube Station, Oil, 15 x 21cm

Isokon Building - Hampstead, Oil, 15 x 21cm

Goldfinger - 2 Willow Road Hampstead, Oil, 15 x 21cm 17 Albert Bridge Looking West, Oil, 30 x 25cm

Hungerford Bridge Looking East, Oil, 30 x 25cm 18 Greenwich Low Tide, Oil, 76 x 122cm

19 Embankment Tube Station, Oil, 21 x 15cm Marble Arch, Oil, 21 x 15cm

Notting Hill Gate, Oil, 21 x 15cm Departure, Oil, 21 x 15cm 20 Tube Steps 2, Oil, 21 x 15cm Charing Cross Road Night, Oil, 21 x 15cm

Tube Station Night - Park Royal, Oil, 21 x 15cm Bond Street, Oil, 21 x 15cm 21 Arrival 2 - King's Cross Sation, Oil, 76 x 51cm

22 Another Arrival - King's Cross St Pancras Station, Oil, 76 x 51cm

23 Bar Italia - Soho, Oil, 76 x 51cm

24 Bar Italia Etching, 38 x 25cm Foyles Oil, 76 x 51cm

Foyles Etching, 38 x 25cm 25 Primrose Hill, Oil, 30 x 76cm

Alexandra Palace, Oil, 30 x 76cm

Parliament Hill, Oil, 30 x 76cm 26 London Panorama - Peckham Library, Oil, 30 x 100cm

London Panorama - Greenwich Shoreline, Oil, 30 x 100cm

London Panorama - SE1, Oil, 30 x 100cm

27 Thames Bridges Looking West - Summer, Oil, 21 x 15cm Thames Bridges Looking West - Spring, Oil, 21 x 15cm

Thames Bridges Looking West - Winter, Oil, 21 x 15cm Thames Bridges Looking West - Autumn, Oil, 21 x 15cm 28 Thames Bridges - Looking West Etching, 38 x 25cm

29 Thames Clouds (Winter), Oil, 61 x 51cm

Thames Clouds (Autumn), Oil, 61 x 51cm 30 Embankment Dusk, Oil, 21 x 15cm

West End - Lower St Martins Lane WC2, Oil, 21 x 15cm 31 Film Noir Etching, 38 x 25cm London Rain Etching, 30 x 25cm

London - Gotham Etching, 38 x 25cm Tube Rain Etching, 30 x 25 cm 32 Tube Station Night (South Ealing), Oil, 76 x 51cm

33 London Vista - Greenwich Waterfront, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Panorama - Primrose Hill, Acrylic on Paper, 10.5 x 30cm

London Vista - Bankside, Oil, 20 x 50cm

34 London Vista - Primrose Hill, Oil, 20 x 50cm

London Panorama - Parliament Hill, Acrylic on Paper, 10.5 x 30cm

London Vista - The City, Oil, 20 x 50cm

Back Cover: Curzon - King’s Road SW3, Oil, 30 x 25cm CATTO GALLERY

100 Heath Street • Hampstead • London NW3 1DP Tel: +44 (0)20 7435 6660 • www.cattogallery.co.uk • [email protected] Opening times: 10am - 6pm Mon - Sat • 12.30pm - 6pm Sunday • and by appointment Exhibition dates: 2nd-22nd December 2018