An artist of the sinking world

Julian Perry (born 1960) paints images of genuine topicality in an immaculate high-definition realist style.

Julian Perry (born 1960) paints images of genuine topicality in an immaculate high-definition realist style. His last show in 2007 dealt with the allotment sheds bulldozed by the relentless encroachment of the Olympic site. Since then he has been painting pictures of coastal erosion, visiting locations around England and composing hallucinatory images of deracination and loss.

‘Clifftop with Fridge Freezers’ was one of the first of the new series. I asked him to describe the subject. ‘It depicts a dairy that has fallen victim to what I think is called “rotational slump”, when alluvial till, or glacial till, which is basically mud, slides away down a cliff at 45 degrees and just rips any buildings on top of it apart,’ says Perry cheerfully. ‘We’re looking at the roof trusses of a barn and the abandoned fridge freezers halfway down the side of a cliff.