Eva Ladia, "Kritiki Epitheorisi" newspaper, 23-04-1988.
"This is nature. Love her. Protect her. Feel the beauty in all its splendour by staying for a while near the trees, by the sea". You think you're hearing all this when you look at Fred Featham's art. One by one, his paintings become the cornerstone of a building that is infused with peace and that welcomes you as soon as you cross its threshold.
In his recent exhibition, intended for the British Council Gallery in Athens, but for three days presented to us in his home, Fred Featham remains steadfast in his approach of emphasizing in his paintings even the detail of his subject matter. You can even see the foamy drops escaping the wave breaking on the sandy beach in his seascapes, discern the leaves on the trees carefully rendered in the olive groves that are a favourite subject of the artist.
He doesn't do it for lack of artistic imagination, for goodness sake! An artist like Fred Featham who experiments in his own techniques puts no restrictions on the scope of his imagination or barriers to his inspiration. He simply respects nature and shows his respect by conveying onto canvas exactly what he sees. This causality that exists around us is what he wants to capture in his works. Looking at Fred Featham's paintings you get lost in reveries released in a sense of peace. Do the colours contribute to this, the style, the messages of the works? You can't pin it down.
In many paintings you see ruins or dilapidated houses. But the colour of the work comes to convey not an impression of decay but of optimism for that old, useless thing that always has something to say in a landscape. Something to tell of its important or unimportant past. The artist remains a romantic nature lover, drawing you into his own reverie. And you rejoice in his unique watercolours that you look at and your admiration never diminishes.
Yes, Fred Featham is an artist. You can tell by the feeling his works evoke in you. We should consider it an honour for our town to have Mr Featham and his multi-talented personality in our midst.
