44 artistMarch 2020 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
FRAGILE COAST CONSERVATION PROJECT: 1ST OF 6
TAMy reference photographs, which I used
to assess tone
Often, when working fast and loose, paintings don’t always go to plan. But this needn’t
be an issue when we have creative ways to bring our artworks to life. This collage
technique is one that I use regularly in my work; it helps to add structure and interest to
an otherwise simple watercolour. Follow this example and try the technique for yourselfSUGGESTED MATERIALS
� Watercolour and acrylic colour. I use
Winsor & Newton Professional colours
as the pigment quantity and quality
gives me unmatched depth of tone
and richness of colour. Prussian blue,
watercolour and acrylic; quinacridone
violet watercolour; aqua green
watercolour; transparent orange
watercolour; titanium white acrylic.
� A4 printer paper
� PVA glueTRY THIS EXERCISE
printed shells and starfi sh, scrumpled,
torn and pasted as the shore. For the
English Channel, brown wrapping paper
and paint was used, with added fl icks of
opaque white gouache to describe the
choppy wave action. Brilliantly simple
and wonderfully effective.
So, for me, John Piper’s collage work
has always been an inspiration, a
guiding light if you will. His painting
practice has always made me ask
the same question about my own
work: ‘Why not?’ Why not use found
ephemera to best capture the
elements, the landscape and the
atmosphere? Why bog myself down
with tightly observed detail when
broad, fl uid marks will describe the
fl eeting light, wind, cold and sounds
just as well? And why not use the found
materials local to the landscape in the
artworks? This last point is a particular
love of mine.
I make my work in an exploratory,
expressive way and often this includes
literally exploring the location for
found materials. These might be
organic elements such as shells, stone,
wood, plant life that, in turn, give me
perfect local colour.
Or sometimes I might search for
and use inorganic collage. During
my travels I have found, as I’m
sure we all have, a depressingly
increasing quantity of inorganic
collage material (or litter as it’s better
known). Everything from coffee cups
to cigarette butts, takeaway burger
packaging to plastic water bottles. So
for me, the most marked difference
between my experience of this part
of the coast and John Piper’s in 1933
is undoubtedly the sheer amount of
discarded and washed-up waste.
To create this artwork I started, as
always, by exploring – in this case ascramble around the crumbling white
cliffs, a walk along the riverbanks and
a litter-collecting mission along the
shoreline. My aim was to try to capture
this unique location as it is today, in its
crumbling white glory and 21st-century
tangled mess. I decided to start with
the ghost gear, pasting a handful down
onto my board. The tar smears onto the
surface, the encrusted salt will mix with
my paint.
For this project and for this artwork I
was not looking to create a nostalgic,
romantic image, that’s been a thousand
times before. Neither was I looking to
depress or preach. No, for this project
I wanted to capture the coast as it is,
now, today. To celebrate that pesky
wind and the crashing waves, the fl ight
of the swifts and the light shafts gifted
by the passing rain.
Like John Piper in 1933, I’m just
looking to paint the truth. STAGE ONE
I started this artwork by painting a basic wet-in-wet watercolour on
location – with the wet-in-wet technique becoming extra wet due to
the incessant rain!
STAGE TWO
Once dry and back in my studio, I added a wash of Prussian blue
acrylic to ramp up the tones and give extra depth to the wintry mood