Cecil Rice was born in Nottingham in 1961 and has lived and worked in Brighton since 1974. After graduating from Brighton Art College in 1983, he has successfully exhibited works throughout England earning him and ever growing following of eager collectors. Cecil is well known for his powerful watercolours of seascapes and architecture. He has a passion for Italy, especially Venice, which he visits regularly on painting trips. Meticulous attention to drawing is evident in many of his paintings and it is this, combined with a fluidity and breadth in the handling of light and colour, that gives the work its strength. His work is bold and contemporary, yet stays within the traditions of British watercolour. “Travel is important to me, providing me with new subjects and vivid impressions. Vast spaces, tracts of open water or beach, old mysterious places, early morning and late evening, are all fascinating to me. I always pay close attention to drawing before I attempt any painting. Not that it is always appropriate to carry out an elaborate drawing, but I have to have a clear idea of the underlying structure, the ‘architecture’ behind a painting-to-be, even if the end result is intended to convey an essentially diffuse effect. When it comes to colour, perversely, perhaps, I like to deliberately generate ‘out of control’ effects, such as one pool of colour running dangerously near to another. In these sorts of terms, the watercolours of Turner and Emil Nolde as well as the art of Japanese stoneware ceramic have each inspired me. This is probably why I am drawn to water, coastal subjects and the city of Venice which, while exquisitely beautiful, is at the same time, decaying.”