IN THE STUDIO
focused around warm and cool
primaries, which includes Cadmium
Yellow Light, India Yellow, Cadmium
Red Light, Alizarin Permanent,
Transparent Red Oxide, Ultramarine
Blue and Cobalt Blue. In addition,
he will often add what he calls
“convenience colours”, which help
him achieve certain mixes more
quickly – pigments such as Viridian
or Portland Grey.
Bryan’s seemingly effortless
balance of loose painterly passages
and more detailed work is in fact hard
won and requires a great deal of
confidence and restraint. He is not
afraid to wipe away hard edges with
his finger or even scrape back more
complete sections if it aids the
composition overall. “Sometimes cars
need to go in reverse to get where you
are going,” he reasons. “The same is
true with a painting.”
Despite being indebted to American
painters such as John Singer Sargent
or the California Impressionists like
Guy Rose and William Wendt, more
recently Bryan has been drawn to the
unorthodox marks and ephemeral
qualities in JMW Turner’s work.
Bryan’s own Skyline reflects part of
a conscious move towards a less
representational approach.
“I keep flirting with abstraction,”
he says. “I’m consciously designing,
inventing, and flattening the space,
but I am still using concepts of light
and colour learned from decades of
plein air painting.”
While his style may be changing, it
is that love of landscape that endures
and Bryan can’t wait to emerge from
his studio and continue exploring the
world through paint. “The colours,
textures, smells, and sounds of new
places can be enchanting, beautiful,
sublime and, at times, even terrifying.
It’s an inexhaustible subject, one that
will continue to inspire me for the rest
of my life.”
http://www.bryanmarktaylor.com
FAR LEFT Indian
Market, oil on
panel, 51 x41cm
LEFT At the City
Market, oil on
panel, 23x30cm
Artists & Illustrators 41