Artist of the Month November 2015

Chris Walker

St Paul lez Durance, France

How and when did you start creating art?

For as long as I can remember I have sketched, painted, whittled and printed. I was an engineer by profession for forty years, in the very exciting field of thermonuclear fusion research. Many demands were made of the systems I designed made or managed; function, cost, safety, strength, sensitivity, stability, but never the colour. My painting is now addressing this emotional hole, full-time, and I revel in colour.

What media and genres do you work in?

Today I work mainly in oil paints which give me, now that I more fully understand their capabilities, a liberty to continue to improve the composition, tonality, colour, and themes as I work on the piece. I love the smell of “real” paint and the depth of colours of oils. It took me a long time to avoid the slide into a muddy puddle, but if I keep several pieces on the go I can always find something to do on one of them while the others dry a little and mature in my mind.

Who or what are your influences?

The direct influences on me are myriad, painters, paintings, people, weather, light, etc. The indirect influences are the lateral thought processes of my own convoluted mind, which goes into overdrive when I work. Colour, pattern, humour and enigma are important in my landscapes, abstracts and whimsical compositions. I aim to pass on this fun with playfulness of subject, composition and colour, with some unexplored depths. Look for nature, physics, Oxfordshire, Munich, Provence, fun and la joie de vivre in my paintings. 

What was your inspiration for Campaniles?

After a lifelong admiration of Friedensreich Hundertwasser's paintings, and more lately an in-depth study of some of his landscapes, particularly ‘Green Town’. His bright colours, organic forms, rejection of straight lines and strong individualism resonate with me. I wanted to capture some of the symbolism of the Austrian Zwiebelturmen with a Provencal twist but not how Provence has been traditionally portrayed. The wrought iron belfries in the sunburnt landscape, the cool starlit night, the wild scabious and marguerites of my own little bit of garigue. The days are shortening, the tourists have left, and people are shutting their holiday homes. But the sun keeps shining, the fields, scratched into strips and furrows in a reconciliation of humanity with nature, are ready for next year's crops and the church belfries still poke out above the town rooftops. Hundertwasser is considered sui generis but he is clearly recognized in all his work. I strive for that, but I have a way to go.

Describe your creative process?

My field book is a mess, snippets of sketches seen or imagined; notes, shopping lists, anything. I sketch in soft pencil and penned or brushed ink, colouring with water colour, gouache, blood, ketchup or grass clippings. I revisit them often, perhaps when looking for a clean page and the chronology is very contorted. These spark off my next lateral thoughts which maybe makes it to a painting.  I also use my computer and tablet a lot as another sketchbook and to try rearrangements of part finished works.

I start more with an idea, a theme, a subject, an effect, than with an image of the final painting. These are sometimes as a sketch or directly on the canvas. The coincidences and accidents are adopted or rejected as they appear along the way. So the final piece is a collaboration of me and the painting. It doesn’t always work; but with oils or acrylic a restart is possible with the painting more dominant and me trying to take back over the driving seat. I see it as teamwork, together we pull each other through to the end, to the point where both I the painter and the painting are happy with the result; like a mother preparing her daughter for her wedding day, full of preconceptions but sensitive to the bride’s wishes. Often I hang the painting, unfinished, somewhere in the studio or the scullery where it keeps nudging me into the next move.

What are you working on currently?

Any of the scullery stock might jump into action at any time. Ready to start today is a sequel to Campaniles and Bridges, they can be read like a comic strip, attempting to blend Marseille Vieux Port with night and dawn. I have a commission of the view over Oxford to start. I know the scene and the accoutrements, but I’m not sure yet how loosely to paint this. 

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

I find that the feedback from what little exhibiting I have done is very stimulating and I would like to find a galleries to exhibit my paintings, I want the world to embrace affordable original art. Long term I hope to develop my own recognizable styles, I know that I am too much of a free spirit (= ill disciplined) to land just one. There are also still significant gaps in my capabilities that need more exploration before I even know my own preferences. I would love to find sufficient time and courage to explore sculpture.

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

I exhibit annually at la Galerie Plastik’Art in the nearby town of Manosque, Alpes de Haut Provence. This year for the first time for twenty years I also exhibited in England again as part of Oxfordshire Art Weeks and this summer I was invited to exhibit at the Château St Jean lez Durance, as part of the Art-et-Vin 2015 festival “Art in Situ " under the aegis of la Fédération des Vignerons Indépendants du Var.

I show all of my works on my website www.chris-walker-art.org. I like to sell directly although I get a lot of good exposure and feedback from the Artfinder and Fine-Art-Europe sites.