Tim Garner (b.1964) is a Manchester based artist who takes inspiration from his time spent between England and France to create dynamic, avant-garde cityscapes. Working from his home in Stockport (Greater Manchester), Garner combines realism and gritty textures to reflect his time spent in these two exiting cultures and landscapes.

Garner finds ways to appreciate the everyday, mundane settings and “anti-landmarks” that most would take for granted day-to-day. He uses a formula of cement, ash, metallics and iridescent paints to create texture and depth, instilling a sense of urban identity, soul and spirit into the surfaces he works on. This combination of tactile materials, as well as scraping and manipulating the surfaces he works on, allows him to appropriate the dirt and grit of the city streets, as though it would leave a residue if we were to touch it.

Given Garner’s deep and enduring connection with Paris and other parts of France, he is uniquely placed to give us his perspective on the French contemporary urban environment. But these cultural influences are not a one-way-street. You can appreciate how gritty Manchester and surrounding countryside has left their imprint on his somewhat more lyrical depiction of Paris street-life and parts further south.

Garner has always photographed and painted France, alongside his work in the North West of England. He set out to study another specificity, another light, another visual identity because it is also part of his personal history. Here, each painting represents a real place, captured at an everyday moment, to observe the local to illustrate the living history of a country.

Art as ever prevails, love conquers all and everyone gains from this nostalgic and personal: Love Letter to France

Artwork by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels, 14-18 July