18 artistMarch 2021 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
OILS
compelling paintings? How does he
choose his subjects? ‘I’m attracted to
interesting contrasts and shapes and try
not to think about whether the subject
is a suitable one for a painting. I usually
paint from a normal standing height,
I’m not looking for wacky angles or
novelty views, I’m happy to leave those
to the photographers. I like the idea of
suggesting activity which might not be
happening right now, especially in my
urban paintings.
‘The general location may not even
be my decision; I often paint in groups.
Once there, I mooch around until
something catches my eye – I try to
be sure I’m choosing a view which
will make a good painting, not a good
photograph; they can be very different.
I often use a small viewer to frame a
scene, and decide how it will fit within
the image. I don’t think in formal terms
about composition, it just happens.’Riding the wave
‘I always have an image in mind when
I start a painting, and it’s never the
one that turns out at the end. A very
important and hard-learned lesson for
me has been that a painting inevitably
moves away from my original aims by
the time it’s halfway through, and I
have to let it go its own way. I think this
accounts for the universal depression
that painters feel in the middle of
the process – it’s almost never what
we were aiming for. When we learn
to ride the different wave and let it
be something else, it can become
something better.
‘I try to start with big brushes,
lots of turps, and get down the bigareas of dark first. However, if it’s a
really complex subject, I’ll often do
a bit of loose drawing first, to get the
proportions right. At this stage I do a lot
of wiping off and starting again. My early
stages of work on a painting have been
described as looking like a car crash. It’s
an important stage for me, as I’m feeling
my way round the shapes. I’m a bit
obsessive about perspective, I’m ok if
it’s deliberately subverted, but when it
looks like a mistake (in my paintings or
other artists’ it upsets me, like a wonky
horizon line.’Keeping the painting moving
‘I’m not pedantic about not using
photographic reference, but I don’t
often do it, because copying one two-
dimensional image onto another isn’t
what I want to spend my time doing.
The conversion of real 3D life into a still
image, which is strong enough to bring
that occasion back to life, is what keeps
me going. I work on a toned ground,
and I try as much as possible to keep all
parts of the painting moving together. If
I started at the top left, and completed
everything as I went along, I’d put in
too much detail and be bored before I
reached the middle.
‘I build up towards the lighter tones
with thicker paint but I don’t often use
really thick impasto. I’ve often been
tempted by thicker techniques, though,
and I admire painters who do it well,
so that might be a future stage of my
evolution.
‘When I’m painting, the relative tones
are really important to me, and I don’t
often mess with the reality that I see.
With colour I feel much freer to distort
and adapt, if it looks like it’s going to
help the picture. At times I’ve been
wildly adventurous with colour, but
always within a fairly straight tonal
framework. I suppose that makes me a
tonal painter.
‘I don’t often work smaller than(^123) 16in, often on a primed and
gessoed board. I can usually complete
these in one two-hour session. Lately,
I’ve been doing more at around
243 30in, which generally need at
least two sessions. I’ll carry two large
canvases together, and work on one
in the morning, and the other in the
afternoon, then come back another day
and do the same thing. I’ve got much
t Pigeon and Seagull, oil on canvas, 30 3 24in
(76 3 61cm).
‘I painted this on the same days as Pylon and
Flyover, in the afternoons. This needed some
finishing in the studio after the two plein-air
sessions.’