Summer 2016 b

When you look back on your
life there are always regrets.
One of mine is that I left it until
I was in my forties to try
and earn a living as an artist.
I’ve always loved art, it was my joint
favourite subject at school along with
woodwork but when I left school life took
me in a different direction. About seven
years ago circumstances meant that I had
to find another job. I’ve always worked
with my hands so naturally I wanted to
do something creative, I started collecting
driftwood and making mirror frames.
This led to making other items from driftwood.
I started painting on driftwood,
then wood panels, then canvas.
I currently favour working on panels as I
like a solid surface to withstand vigorous
brush and knife work.
I’m classed as self taught but who can really
claim to have taught themself? With the
abundance of source material around nowadays
you can study any artist’s methods
and processes learning as you research and
experiment along the way. I much prefer
trying to work things out myself by studying
other artist’s work than being shown
how to do things from a series of instructions.
I feel that finding your own way helps
you to develop a greater understanding of
methods and principles. It doesn’t work for
everyone but it suits me fine. In a way I’m
being taught by the best teachers there have
ever been.
A common question is “which artist is
your favourite?” This is a difficult one as
I like and appreciate many artists, but if
I had to name three, at the moment they
would be Van Gogh, Picasso & Turner.
Turner’s skies are just something else.
The atmosphere he captured in his work
virtually jumps off the wall at you and
grabs your attention. Van Gogh’s energy
and determination to succeed were
remarkable and this comes through in
his wonderful work. It’s such a shame
he was never appreciated to the full extent
when he was alive. His paintings
certainly thrive today with the life that
was so prematurely snuffed out in such
a sad way. Picasso was a natural artist
who developed art in an unusual and
unique way pushing the boundaries of
his art at the time. I suppose these are the
marks I aim for and it’s this inspiration
that drives me on .
My main goal with a piece of work is to
provoke an emotional reaction from the
viewer. I think skies can do this well because
a sky can so easily reflect human
feelings like peace, excitement, foreboding
and darkness and people can relate
to these. With a foreboding sky I will
often provide the viewer with a glimpse
of blue or bright sky giving a feeling of
hope beyond the despair.
Over the last six months or so I’ve worked
from a limited palette. I find that this really
unifies my work and makes
me think more about how to achieve a certain
hue without reaching for a tube of ready made
pigment. It’s really interesting what colours
you produce along the way when you mix
your own. The only trouble is remembering
to note down how you did it, otherwise forget
trying to repeat it exactly!
When it comes to subject matter, landscapes
are my chosen area of concentration along
with seascapes and occasionally some urbanscapes.
Getting outside into the elements is
important to me and I like to record the feel
of a place with sketches and reference photos
to work from when I’m back in the studio. I
recently saw an artists sketches which were
shown alongside his finished paintings and on
these sketches he noted down all of his sensory
observations such as sounds, smells, feel
of the air, brightness etc, in fact anything that
would aid him in his accurate portrayal of
the scene. It brought home to me that all
these things are necessary because they
are the vital ingredients that make up the
finished work and breathe life into a painting,
there’s more to it than just projecting
an image, it’s about projecting a whole experience.
With recent work finished for a summer
exhibition I’m now thinking ahead to my
next series of paintings. I have some ideas
which I’m working on. That’s what I love
about producing art, you’re always aiming
for your next goal and looking for some
new angle or perspective. There’s always
something new to strive for on the horizon,
and that’s the good thing about the
horizon, you can never reach it but it’s always
in sight.
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