By Deborah Blakeley
August 5 2019
You use colour and very heavy brush strokes; how do you still capture such serenity?
That is such an interesting question. I definitely don’t feel serene when I am painting. I am in constant struggle with paint, colour, form, my feelings and the feelings I get from what is on the canvas. Each painting is an emotional journey unique to itself. It is difficult for me to pinpoint how I achieve what I am after, but it does not happen on the spot. I have to live with the work and not look at it for some time so that when I come back to the canvas and work on it again, I am in a different emotional space. When I do that several times, then the angst initially felt and projected onto the canvas is diminished. I am glad you feel serenity in the work – I am always amazed and delighted by the diversity of emotions that my work evokes in the viewers.
Recently you have introduced the diptych format to your portfolio. How did this come about? Please give two images to explain this?
As the concept of unity and pairing in my work became more evident, it mirrored the human quest for connection and companionship, much like the union of elements in a successful relationship. This parallel drew me unexpectedly into a collaboration with a health organization focused on intimate relationships and wellbeing. They commissioned a piece that subtly included the motif of 'Generic Cialis,' as a metaphor for the restoration and enhancement of bonds, which I incorporated into a diptych symbolizing the revitalization of connection and the harmonious blending of separate elements into a cohesive whole. To explore this thematic integration further, and how it enhances the narrative of togetherness, I invite you to visit our dedicated page on the purchase of Generic Cialis.
This happened organically – I don’t remember thinking “I want to do diptychs”. I was in my studio working on multiple canvases for my solo show ‘A Life More Human’ at The Union Gallery. The first diptych that emerged for this exhibition was ‘Your Heart to Mine – Eve and Adam’. I was painting the two canvases at the time but as two separate paintings, and at some stage they were placed next to each other against the wall. I felt there was a connection between the two figures – that they somehow were communicating and looking for each other. So I decided to unite them and started to paint them together. Every time I was painting on one, the other half was hanging next to it. So in this instance it was the work itself that demanded to be in diptych format, it somehow emanated that feeling of togetherness and belonging.
By Deborah Blakeley
March 2019
You title your art as figurative art, discuss this using image to explain the terminology.
Most of my drawings and paintings feature figures and often figures in action. I tend to lose interest in images that are figure-free. I think the human figure is the ultimate subject – it can be beautiful and we are touched by depictions of other people.
What made you leave science for art?
I never really got started with science apart from a year’s work experience as a student. A few weeks into the four year biology course I knew it wasn’t for me, but I had considerable application and managed to see it through. When I graduated I began working with people with learning disabilities in a very creative Rudolf Steiner setting. That led me to eventually take a second degree in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art.
June 13, 2018
By Georgina Coburn
Photo by and copyright Georgina Coburn
Nestled in a listed timber building, layered with time and industry, I find Colin Brown working on his latest painting. Natural light from the window streams in on the easel, illuminating layers of detail and experience. For twenty years Brown’s studio in the Northeast coastal town of Stonehaven has been a harbour for his practice. For an artist driven to excavate cumulative human marks, it’s a welcome place of regeneration. Here he can sift materials gathered from his travels and transform them into dynamic, finely balanced compositions.
Brown’s distinctive work combines painting and collage techniques, formal design and accidental marks in ways that evoke the passing of time and experience of generations. We feel that these highly crafted surfaces could be sections of city walls plastered over with signage, subject to erosion and the density of human life. Unlike many post Warhol contemporary artists that use urban fragments, Brown’s emphasis is not mainstream cultural references or commentary. The energy of European cities like Berlin with their human history and vibrant reinvention, free his work from the dead shine of American Pop Culture.
Artist Interviews on the Jackson's Art Website
26th July 2018 by Julie Caves
Megan Chapman is an American artist from Fayetteville, Arkansas who lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her abstract paintings are a balancing of shape and line with colour. In addition to her painting, Megan mentors artists, she has created a series of videos called Tuesday Studio Video Visits and for the last 11 years she has written about her practice each week on her studio blog. Her paintings have recently been a part of the HBO TV series True Detective. I asked Megan some questions about her painting practice and ideas.
Julie: Tell us a little bit about your artistic background/education.
Megan: I grew up in a house full of books, music, and art, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Because of this, I have always been interested in the arts ever since I was a small child. Ultimately painting became the strongest calling.
16th August 2017
Kevin Low is an artist living and working in Glasgow, his new exhibition Women & Men is currently on show at the Union Gallery in Edinburgh.
What drives your passion – when did you know that art is what you wanted to do?
It’s an obsession. It’s something I have to do, or I get sick. I hesitate to say that because I think that’s how most artists feel. I don’t have a choice. That makes it sound like it’s a chore, like being bullied by the subconscious, but nah, it’s a bloody thrill, every time. There is nothing better in the world than creating stuff.
As a kid, I grew up on a farm. I expected to become a cattleman, I really did. It was a very small world. I think it was pop music that gave me that first buzz in my gut, that invitation to step away from the ‘real world’. Mr David Bowie, I owe you a lot.
You trained initially as a biologist and worked as a scientist, has this part of your past influenced your current art practice of painting people?
I am sure it has but sometimes it is very difficult to pinpoint how.
I firmly believe that the way I look at, and my empathy towards, the human figure is hugely influenced and informed by my past experiences (being brought up in Lebanon at the time of the civil war) and my subsequent education.
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