Artist of the Month August 2015

Adam James Butcher

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Adam Butcher is a specialist in portraiture, both sculpted and painted.  He creates an instantly recognisable likeness, irrespective of how clearly, on close inspection, his free, casual and impromptu approach verges onto the abstract.

Passing from sculpture to collage to painting in the course of his career, Adam has recently begun using the iPad as a particularly effective tool for capturing the moment, both in lightning portraits and in strikingly immediate town, land and seascapes.  His interiors of pubs and cafes are especially original.  In this exciting new medium we see the influence of Monet, Bonnard, Van Gogh, Gaugin and more contemporary artists such as Andrew Gifford, David Hockney and Lucien Freud.

Adam's work is confident, vibrant and strong, yet always exhibits a quiet, almost uncanny sincerity, a deep love and understanding of his subject matter.  He is a naturally shy, modest and introverted person, which makes his achievements in the realm of education even more impressive.  Like his grandfather, his work emanates not so much from a conscious intellectual plan as from an intensely acute vision, an instinctive compassion for the amazing world of form we live in. To this respect for the beauty of objects that we all recognise, he adds his own unique signature through his bold interpretation of colour and the bravura and confidence of his stroke-making technique.  He sometimes ventures into the abstract, but his first love is nature. 

In his twenties Adam became a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism, and this philosophy shows in all his work, in the timelessness caught in the memory of a single moment, and in the dignity he brings to all aspects of humanity and the environment, however humble. 

In 2015, Adam, his wife Virginie and their children Anais and William, moved to the Riviera Maya in Mexico, where he now works as a full-time artist.  

During his short time in Mexico, Adam has already made a big impact with his work, achieving a growing number of private commissions as well as gallery representation in Mexico City and Puebla. 

How and when did you start creating art?

As a child I was very shy and introverted. As a result of this, I became an expert at observing the world around me. I can't ever remember a time when I wasn't drawing. I wasn't too interested in working from imagination.  Instead, recording the people and places around me became my way of communicating.

 I had a very strong bond with my grandfather, Leonard Butcher,  who was an art teacher and lanscape painter. He often took me out with him painting 'en plein air' and at an early age I learned a lot from watching him work. During my teens, I joined my grandfather on his painting trips to St. Ives, the well established artist colony in Cornwall. These visits were inspiring and the deciding factor in my decision to follow a career as a fine artist.

What media and genres do you work in?

I trained as a sculptor during my studies at Wimbledon School of Art in London. However, I have worked in a range of other media such as painting, collage, ceramics and printing over the course of my career. I could easily put all of these under the general heading of drawing, since I consider myself primarily a draughtsman who records what he sees and experiences. Recently, the iPad has become my main creative tool. Like all media, there are advantages and disadvantages. The iPad allows me to capture my subject in most situations without the distractions that come with setting up paint tubes, brush cleaning and lugging heavy equipment around. The ability of infinite layering of colours has to be one of the major advantages.

Who or what are your influences?

My main influence is the innovative post-Impressionist movement. I have always been fascinated by the 2D and 3D observational drawings and colour studies of artists such as August Rodin, Toulouse Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet and especially Van Gogh, who concentrated on the subjective vision of the artist. A great era, during which painting left behind its traditional role as a window onto the world and instead became a window into the artist's mind and soul. Pablo Picasso, Marino Marini, Alberto Giacometti, Paula Rego, Edward Hopper, to name a few more, were some of the contemporary artists that had an impact on my work. My recent return to painting and the focus on colour has been inspired by the iPad works of David Hockney, the portraits of Lucien Freud and the landscapes of artists such as Andrew Gifford. 

What was your inspiration for "Self Portrait" (Seven Days Series) ?

My inspiration for "Self Portrait" (Seven Days Series) came from my fascination with the way we see the world differently each day.  Using the iPad meant that I could complete seven portraits back to back over seven days and record the whole process as a stop frame video. I am interested in the way my changing life state effected the way I perceived myself at each stage. This portrait was the last of the seven and in many ways the most intensely observed piece. "We are not passive experiencers of the world; we are the creators of the world we experience" (Kant's ideas on seeing).

Describe your creative process?

Although I admire many artworks that have been created from secondary sources, I work best when I am in direct contact with the subject that I am recording. The following quote by David Hockney sums up perfectly what I feel are the most important factors in my own creative process.

"In painting you need the hand. Art is a more difficult subject and it might be more difficult to define. But painting is reasonably easy to define. And I'd say you need three things: the hand, the eye and the heart, as the Chinese say."

Although I have a studio that I use to consolidate ideas and prepare work for presentation, more often than not I work on location. Out of the studio, my iPad, stylus and tripod become my paints, brushes, canvass and easel.

During the process of painting something or someone, I am often so engulfed in concentration that I am completely unaware of anything else. Looking is terribly important in the success of my work and therefore I often work in silence. 

What are you working on currently?

After an intensive period traveling and painting the Mexican landscape, I'm now focusing back on portraiture which was always my first love. The face never loses its appeal for me. I can't ever pretend to capture the complex layers of a person's character in my portraits. My aim is to simply capture a true and honest record of what I see.

"Abandoning the old pretence that the human character can be 'penetrated' by a portrait, they replace it with something more honest and in the end more moving." (Sebastian Smee in his introduction to Freud's portraits on paper).

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

Moving to The Riviera Maya, Mexico in 2014 marked an important moment in my career as a full-time practising artist. Achieving gallery representation in Mexico City in such a short time was a real benefit. Over the next year I have plans to exhibit my work in towns such as Puebla, Merida, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Mexico City.  I am also working hard on developing my online presence. As well as in Mexico, I would like to establish myself in the US and eventually on an international level. Exhibiting back in the UK, where I began, as well as in other European cities is a long term dream of mine.

Ideally, I don't want to end up relying on one medium alone. I have worked in a diverse range of 2D and 3D media over my career. Pushing myself to explore new ways of recording, I hope to avoid becoming complacent, but keeping up with and using new technology as a tool in the creative process will always play an important part in the development of my practice. 

Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?

My work can be viewed on my website (www.adamjamesbutcher.com). People can purchase my work by contacting me directly through my website or by visiting my new Artfinder Shop on:

artfinder.com/adamjamesbutcher.

I regularly update my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page with new work and current events. People can link to my social networks through my website.