Following the rediscovery of the Plymouth Market mural, we asked Gez about the experiences that shaped his life and work, the places mural painting took him, and the intuitive process behind the paintings in this exhibition.

Where did your relationship with art begin?

I grew up in South London with a South African father and an Irish mother. They were Catholic, and the religious paintings and statues I saw in church every Sunday were the only art I encountered when I was small.

Those images, mixed with mystery, music and ritual, were very significant to me. Looking back, they gave me a strong sense of the spiritual.

From childhood, I never stopped drawing. I came from a working-class background and attended a school that placed little importance on art, so I didn’t realise it was something I could develop.

Working life began when I joined the Merchant Navy and travelled around the world. Later, I became a gardener, but I continued drawing throughout.

At thirty, you decided to become an artist. What prompted that decision?

I was working for the National Trust in Cornwall and living in a tied house with my wife, Linda, and our four children. One night, I decided that I should become an artist and learn to paint.

The following morning, I told Linda and left my job in search of a new life. Incredible things happened afterwards that allowed me to learn to paint on ceramic tiles. I exhibited panels at Earls Court and was later commissioned to paint murals in a grand private residence in Windsor, which the site manager described to me as Queen Faisal’s new house.

How did your time at Dartington College of Arts shape you as an artist?

I went to Dartington to study Art in a Social Context and was looking forward to learning how to paint properly. To my disappointment, painting was not taught on the course. A lecturer showed me a room containing old canvases and materials and told me I could paint in my own time, so that is what I did.

Soon after the course began, my mother died. Following her funeral, I filled a small book with drawings and written memories of my childhood. Some of those drawings later became the starting points for paintings.

When I returned to Dartington, I began working on an old canvas with oil paint and white spirit. I had no real idea what I was doing or what I was going to paint. I simply started and watched it evolve.

When it was finished, I was overwhelmed by the painting and by how therapeutic the process had been. It felt like a kind of healing.

How did you turn mural painting into a career?

After college, because I had a family to support, I decided to start a mural business based on what I had learned—and my ability to blag.

I created a name for the company, cut my hair, bought a briefcase and portfolio, then approached every leading interior designer I could find in central London.

Eventually, it worked. I was asked to quote for the murals at the Bath Spa Hotel, Trusthouse Forte’s first five-star hotel outside London. It was an enormous project with a limited amount of time, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Diana, Princess of Wales, attended the hotel’s opening as a guest. Olga Polizzi waved me over and introduced us after the Princess expressed an interest in the mural panels. A photograph of me working on one of them appeared in The Daily Telegraph and The Times.

Where did the mural commissions take you after Bath?

Completing the Bath Spa Hotel led to further projects through Olga Polizzi. I worked at the Albany Hotel in Glasgow—I flew there from London in Olga’s private jet—and at the Palazzo della Fonte in Fiuggi, just outside Rome, in 1991. For the Italian project, I painted a panel in my studio and travelled with it to the hotel.

Two later commissions remain unforgettable for very different reasons. My favourite was the Monkey Bar at the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados.

The other was a new palace for a prince in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The cruelty and inhumanity I witnessed there made me ill. It was beyond belief.

Did you also create public work closer to home?

Later, I created a large community project on Wolseley Road in Plymouth in 1997. Around 1988, I also painted Egyptian-themed ceramic murals for the Pyramids swimming pool in Exeter.

In 1997, I worked on a large community project on Wolseley Road in Plymouth. These projects gave me the opportunity to create work for public spaces and for the communities using them.

How do your non-commercial paintings begin?

When I start most of these paintings, I have no idea what is going to happen. I begin painting and wait to see what emerges. While I am involved in the work, I don’t feel as though I am controlling it.

Sometimes a memory or an idea provides the starting point, but it then becomes joined with the process. I often paint while listening to music—usually classical music or opera—and it somehow becomes integral to the work.

Knowing when a painting is complete is instinctive rather than an aesthetic judgement. I simply know.

How does spirituality enter the work?

Through this work, I feel as though I have reconnected with the spirituality I first encountered as a child. I have also had many spiritual experiences, perhaps because I have remained open to that world without looking for explanations.

When I make these paintings, I feel as though I am hardly there at all. I am simply part of the process. Once a painting is complete, I am often fascinated and curious about what it might mean.

There are no particular symbols or forms that consciously recur, except for faces. They are never familiar to me, but I sometimes feel that they may represent my ancestors.

People sometimes describe the paintings as psychedelic. How do you respond to that?

I can understand why people say that, because the imagery seems to suggest a subconscious world. However, it is emphatically not related to drugs. I have never taken psychedelic substances.

I am aware that the work could be fed by my subconscious rather than something spiritual. If that is the case, then I imagine my memories and experiences are influencing it, with music accompanying the process.

People sometimes say the work appears drug-related. I understand why—the imagery suggests a subconscious world—but I have never taken psychedelic substances. Perhaps my imagery is coming from the same kind of place as an LSD experience.

How does it feel to show these paintings publicly for the first time, and what do you hope visitors will take from them?

Showing my work publicly for the first time is exciting. I have reached a point where I want to share the paintings, allow them to be seen and sell some of them.

Totnes feels like the perfect place for the exhibition because I have always associated it with Dartington College of Arts, where I studied. To me, this feels like the beginning of another journey to add to all the others.

I am looking forward to speaking with visitors and hearing their thoughts about the work. I hope people will be able to relate to the paintings and come away with a piece of those other worlds in their minds.

1 August–2 September 2026
The Curator at The Square, 42 High Street, Totnes

The exhibition can be viewed during our usual caffè opening hours. The paintings plus some limited edition prints will be available for purchase.

For availability, prices or other artwork enquiries, please email art@thecurator.co.uk

PLANNED ARTIST TALK — 27 AUGUST

Towards the end of the exhibition, Gez will look to join Alfie Farrell for a ticketed conversation about his life, his public murals and the paintings on display. There will also be time for questions from the audience.

Full details and ticket booking will be announced shortly.