Any artwork should grab the
attention of the viewer, and reward at first glance. With longer exposure, it
should fulfill its potential to convey the feelings and ideas of the artist –
of whatever discipline - and provoke further thought.
Ideally that is…
My own work is representational,
though not photorealistic, and relies heavily on reference material – drawn or
photographed. Though my subject matter is not limited to one specific genre, I have
been led to landscape through a fascination with clouds. Figures are a constant
preoccupation; I often sketch passers-by from the window as a warm-up exercise.
I enjoy the technical business
of painting, and work mainly in oil paint and watercolour. I tend to use
watercolour to draw rapid, transient events from life - figures and skies -
while the more complex easel work is done with oil paint; using a variety of
oil mediums, and more often now over thin acrylic grisaille underdrawing. Different oils, with varnish, have smoother or stickier paint
qualities, and lend themselves to harder or softer marks. Stroking and blending
the thin oily paint can soften and roll it, and I like the resultant even surface.
Whenever possible, I try to exploit the transparency and opacity of the pigments I'm using.
When composing, I use
photoshop for testing ideas - the initial elements of the piece can be changed
and adjusted more easily and accurately on screen than with multiple separate evolutions
on paper. A lot of my image sources are from photographs anyway, and I find
some of my landscapes and skies on google streetview.
For some time now, I've been driven by one of the least original ideas in art – Et in Arcadia Ego - where the dark and
painful exists within the light and beautiful. For me, these ideas had their
genesis in watching the 1990s Yugoslav wars on TV; I found it hard to reconcile those ghastly events happening within such a beautiful setting.
August 2021
