Jim Robertshaw:
“It starts with enthusiasm”.
I don’t know how the process works for most painters, but this tends to be my experience.
It starts with enthusiasm. I’ve found a new subject or a new slant on an old one and can’t wait to begin. Let’s be sure about the composition, let’s get the drawing right. No devil-may-care “I’ll fix it as I go along” for me, oh no.
The middle section is harder. What is going on in my head rarely comes out of my paint brush without a struggle. The colours aren’t really working, I begin to doubt the drawing, not even sure of the basic idea. It’s a mess.
This is when some of the works end up in the canvas graveyard in a corner of my studio, maybe finding life as a different painting in a few years. Otherwise, I just push on and on and the detail starts to pull it together, the highlights give it life and you have yourself a painting. Happy days.
Looking back, my most satisfying paintings are what sound to be the least inspiring ones; a building site, a derelict pub, a scrapyard door, a stairway at Waterloo underground. Man-made, they are originally products of someone else’s imagination and design skill, some have been altered, neglected or just ravaged by time. But to me, even before they have been taken out of their industrial context and now hang on someone’s wall, they are all rather beautiful. My challenge is to get out of lovely Deal more often and find some more unpromising subjects.
Wood and lino prints have taken a back seat at the moment, apart from an annual Christmas card for friends and family. I started doing them nearly 10 years ago and every year I’m told that they would like another.
I am tempted to try hand-printing on a more epic scale though. Many of my paintings are three or four feet across, a wood cut of that size is worth thinking about.
Jim is exhibiting in Open Studios from his home at 171 Middle Street, Deal CT14 6LL. 29-30 June and 6-7 July 2024. 10am to 5pm.
SEAS - South East Artists 