Fraser Diesel is a noted British artist who is well known for his abstract oil paintings and figurative charcoal sketches.
Born in South Africa in 1932, Diesel first studied art at The Wits School of Art, Johannesburg, then continued his advanced studies in London at the prestigious St Martin’s School of Art.
Diesel’s early initiative was to perfect his sketching ability and concentrated on charcoal sketching of the human body. A major facet of his work in his developing years, Diesel is still regularly maintaining this discipline today.
His early life in the African Karoo Desert sparked in Diesel a fascination with desert mirages, inspiring a powerful lifelong affinity with this visual theme.
This calling to interpret using oils on canvas set Diesel on a decades-long path of experimentation to explore this unique effect. A succession of series tracks his journey in expressing this mirage experience.
The first theme was ‘Desert Bodies’, a direct influence of the Karoo Desert, the landscape and the nomadic people.
His experimentation continued with ‘Canal Colours’, inspired by a journey in a narrow canal boat in brilliant springtime England.
This evolved into another series, ‘Enigma’, still in search of the mysterious mirage effect, but the waters are now the Mississippi River and the mystery is a real-life brief encounter with a stranger.
Over many decades, Diesel has formulated a unique style and technique which he intends to “appear effortless, delicate and transparent”.
Witness the ongoing journey of Fraser Diesel as he explores the resonances of deeply personal themes on his canvases.
