Cyril Hamersma - Artist

Cyril Hamersma - Artist
Hamersma - Artist at Work

Cyril Hamersma - Artist - 1919 to 1994

Also a prolific writer and inventor . . .
Born 1919, London
Painted from an early age
Served in Royal Army Medical
Corps 1939-45
Taught art to fellow prisoners in Stalag VIIIB
Caring jobs
throughout his life to make ends meet
Married and with four daughters
Died 1994, Essex
This man could paint. See his self-portraits: 1965, 1983, 1992. See his landscapes, 'The Cornfield' and his nudes. He also understood the value of abstract art in touching people's awareness and he conveyed ideas through images which provoked enlightenment, pleasure and emotion in the viewers. Hamersma’s artwork regularly focused on the simple things in life: a juicy red apple; a welcoming pot of tea; a freshly fried egg – the basics of which he was, along with many thousands of men, deprived for four years as a prisoner of war in Germany in World War II. Abstract explorations were similarly derivative. He was fascinated by ‘the line’ in art. Where does one object finish and another begin, when you look at them as a two dimensional image? And every object is made up of cells, minuscule cells invisible to the naked eye but Hamersma exploded ideas and looked further into them, painting and drawing ‘cells’; images made up of cells; ‘metaphysical cell structures’ which led him to invent the Squircle. It was his Squircle work that became the pinnacle. “The Squircle is Art, Science and Religion – together in one image,” he said in January 1994. “Light invites everyone to join the fight against the darkness. Our hearts and eyes are drawn together to eliminate and squeeze,” he wrote in March 1994

Saturday 27 October 2007

1960s

In 1960, after some years working as a barber in London, Hamersma moved with his wife and four young daughters to the country. He started his own Gents' Hairdressing Salon and displayed his artwork in the customers' waiting area.
1963: he sold the house in Sussex, notoriously gave up barbering and bought a smaller house in Essex where he pursued his art full time. His output and versatility increased.


By 1965 Hamersma secured a solo exhibition at Gallery 60 in Colchester where he sold several paintings and his resolve was strengthened.

After a short visit to Paris in the summer of 1966, Hamersma and family moved to St. Ives in Cornwall where his colourful abstracts and impressionistic work was shown in two exhibitions in the Penwith Gallery.
The climate was unsuitable for several reasons and in 1967 the family returned to Essex where Hamersma delighted in revisiting drawing and painting the local buildings, streets and countryside.


He created numerous woodcuts, painted portraits and caricatures of local workers and continued to experiment with colour, shape, light and design.










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